A NON-LINEAR DEGENERATE EQUATION FOR DIRECT AGGREGATION AND TRAVELING WAVE DYNAMICS

The gregarious behavior of individuals of populations is an important factor in avoiding predators or for reproduction. Here, by using a random biased walk approach, we build a model which, after a transformation, takes the general form ut = [D(u)ux]x + g(u). The model involves a density-dependent n...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sanchez-Garduno, F, Maini, P, Perez-Velazquez, J
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2010
Description
Summary:The gregarious behavior of individuals of populations is an important factor in avoiding predators or for reproduction. Here, by using a random biased walk approach, we build a model which, after a transformation, takes the general form ut = [D(u)ux]x + g(u). The model involves a density-dependent non-linear diffusion coefficient D whose sign changes as the population density u increases. For negative values of D aggregation occurs, while dispersion occurs for positive values of D. We deal with a family of degenerate negative diffusion equations with logistic-like growth rate g. We study the one-dimensional traveling wave dynamics for these equations and illustrate our results with a couple of examples. A discussion of the ill-posedness of the partial differential equation problem is included.