3.II.13B

Mathematical Biology
Part II, 2007

The number density of a population of cells is n(x,t)n(\mathbf{x}, t). The cells produce a chemical whose concentration is C(x,t)C(\mathbf{x}, t) and respond to it chemotactically. The equations governing nn and CC are

nt=γn(n0n)+Dn2nχ(nC)Ct=αnβC+Dc2C\begin{aligned} \frac{\partial n}{\partial t} &=\gamma n\left(n_{0}-n\right)+D_{n} \nabla^{2} n-\chi \nabla \cdot(n \nabla C) \\ \frac{\partial C}{\partial t} &=\alpha n-\beta C+D_{c} \nabla^{2} C \end{aligned}

(i) Give a biological interpretation of each term in these equations, where you may assume that α,β,γ,n0,Dn,Dc\alpha, \beta, \gamma, n_{0}, D_{n}, D_{c} and χ\chi are all positive.

(ii) Show that there is a steady-state solution that is stable to spatially invariant disturbances.

(iii) Analyse small, spatially-varying perturbations to the steady state that satisfy 2ϕ=k2ϕ\nabla^{2} \phi=-k^{2} \phi for any variable ϕ\phi, and show that a chemotactic instability is possible if

χαn0>βDn+γn0Dc+(4βγn0DnDc)1/2\chi \alpha n_{0}>\beta D_{n}+\gamma n_{0} D_{c}+\left(4 \beta \gamma n_{0} D_{n} D_{c}\right)^{1 / 2}

(iv) Find the critical value of kk at which the instability first appears as χ\chi is increased.