Subcritical wave instability in reaction-diffusion systems

Widening the criteria for emergence of Turing patterns

The classical concept for emergence of Turing patterns in reaction-diffusion systems requires that a system should be composed of complementary subsystems, one of which is unstable and diffuses sufficiently slowly while the other one is stable and diffuses sufficiently rapidly. In this work, the phenomena of emergence of Turing patterns are studied and do not fit into this concept, yielding the following results. (1) The criteria are derived, under which a reaction-diffusion system with immobile species should spontaneously produce Turing patterns under any diffusion coefficients of its mobile species. It is shown for such systems that under certain sets of types of interactions between their species, Turing patterns should be produced under any parameter values, at least provided that the corresponding spatially non-distributed system is stable. (2) It is demonstrated that in a reaction-diffusion system, which contains more than two species and is stable in absence of diffusion, the presence of a sufficiently slowly diffusing unstable subsystem is already sufficient for diffusion instability (i.e., Turing or wave instability), while its complementary subsystem can also be unstable. (3) It is shown that the presence of an immobile unstable subsystem, which leads to destabilization of waves within an infinite range of wavenumbers, in a spatially discrete case can result in the generation of large-scale stationary or oscillatory patterns. (4) It is demonstrated that under the presence of subcritical Turing and supercritical wave bifurcations, the interaction of two diffusion instabilities can result in the spontaneous formation of Turing structures outside the region of Turing instability.

Quasisolitons in self-diffusive excitable systems, or Why asymmetric diffusivity obeys the Second Law

Solitons, defined as nonlinear waves which can reflect from boundaries or transmit through each other, are found in conservative, fully integrable systems. Similar phenomena, dubbed quasi-solitons, have been observed also in dissipative, "excitable" systems, either at finely tuned parameters (near a bifurcation) or in systems with cross-diffusion. Here we demonstrate that quasi-solitons can be robustly observed in excitable systems with excitable kinetics and with self-diffusion only. This includes quasi-solitons of fixed shape (like KdV solitons) or envelope quasi-solitons (like NLS solitons). This can happen in systems with more than two components, and can be explained by effective cross-diffusion, which emerges via adiabatic elimination of a fast but diffusing component. We describe here a reduction procedure can be used for the search of complicated wave regimes in multi-component, stiff systems by studying simplified, soft systems.

Diffusive instabilities in hyperbolic reaction-diffusion equations

We investigate two-variable reaction-diffusion systems of the hyperbolic type. A linear stability analysis is performed, and the conditions for diffusion-driven instabilities are derived. Two basic types of eigenvalues, real and complex, are described. Dispersion curves for both types of eigenvalues are plotted and their behavior is analyzed. The real case is related to the Turing instability, and the complex one corresponds to the wave instability. We emphasize the interesting feature that the wave instability in the hyperbolic equations occurs in two-variable systems, whereas in the parabolic case one needs three reaction-diffusion equations.

Classification of wave regimes in excitable systems with linear cross diffusion

We consider principal properties of various wave regimes in two selected excitable systems with linear cross diffusion in one spatial dimension observed at different parameter values. This includes fixed-shape propagating waves, envelope waves, multienvelope waves, and intermediate regimes appearing as waves propagating at a fixed shape most of the time but undergoing restructuring from time to time. Depending on parameters, most of these regimes can be with and without the "quasisoliton" property of reflection of boundaries and penetration through each other. We also present some examples of the behavior of envelope quasisolitons in two spatial dimensions.

Envelope quasisolitons in dissipative systems with cross-diffusion

We consider two-component nonlinear dissipative spatially extended systems of reaction-cross-diffusion type. Previously, such systems were shown to support "quasisoliton" pulses, which have a fixed stable structure but can reflect from boundaries and penetrate each other. Herein we demonstrate a different type of quasisolitons, with a phenomenology resembling that of the envelope solitons in the nonlinear Schrödinger equation: spatiotemporal oscillations with a smooth envelope, with the velocity of the oscillations different from the velocity of the envelope.

Periodic spatiotemporal patterns in a two-dimensional two-variable reaction-diffusion model

Periodic spatiotemporal two-dimensional (2D) asymptotic patterns in an excitable two-variable thermochemical (reaction-diffusion) system are shown. In a one-dimensional system the traveling impulse which reflects from impermeable boundaries is a stable asymptotic solution if the diffusion coefficient of the reactant is greater than the thermal diffusivity of the system. Periodic patterns of two symmetries are presented in the 2D system: the impulse of excitation propagating along the diagonal of a square spatial domain and a structure consisting of curved impulses which propagate in the direction perpendicular to one side of a rectangular domain.

Resonance-induced oscillons in a reaction-diffusion system

A new type of oscillon that arises from interaction between subcritical Turing and wave instabilities is found in a system of reaction-diffusion equations. These oscillons can be induced resonantly by localized external periodic perturbations. This phenomenon may be useful for frequency selection and/or information processing.

Wavelength halving in a transition between standing waves and traveling waves

In the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction-diffusion system dispersed in a newly developed water-in-oil aerosol OT/Span-20 microemulsion, the transition between standing waves and traveling waves is accompanied by a halving of the wavelength.