Classification of wave regimes in excitable systems with linear cross diffusion

Solitary pulses and periodic wave trains in a bistable FitzHugh-Nagumo model with cross diffusion and cross advection

We describe analytically, and simulate numerically, traveling waves with oscillatory tails in a bistable, piecewise-linear reaction-diffusion-advection system of the FitzHugh-Nagumo type with linear cross-diffusion and cross-advection terms of opposite signs. We explore the dynamics of two wave types, namely, solitary pulses and their infinite sequences, i.e., periodic wave trains. The effects of cross diffusion and cross advection on wave profiles and speed of propagation are analyzed. For pulses, in the speed diagram splitting of a curve into several branches occurs, corresponding to different waves (wave branching). For wave trains, in the dispersion relation diagram there are oscillatory curves and the discontinuous curve of an isola with two branches. The corresponding wave trains have symmetric or asymmetric profiles. Numerical simulations show that for large values of the period there exist two wave trains, which come closer and closer together and are subject to fusion into one when the value of the period is decreasing. Other types of waves are also briefly discussed.

Nonlinear waves in a quintic FitzHugh-Nagumo model with cross diffusion: Fronts, pulses, and wave trains

We study a tristable piecewise-linear reaction-diffusion system, which approximates a quintic FitzHugh-Nagumo model, with linear cross-diffusion terms of opposite signs. Basic nonlinear waves with oscillatory tails, namely, fronts, pulses, and wave trains, are described. The analytical construction of these waves is based on the results for the bistable case [Zemskov et al., Phys. Rev. E 77, 036219 (2008) and Phys. Rev. E 95, 012203 (2017) for fronts and for pulses and wave trains, respectively]. In addition, these constructions allow us to describe novel waves that are specific to the tristable system. Most interesting is the pulse solution with a zigzag-shaped profile, the bright-dark pulse, in analogy with optical solitons of similar shapes. Numerical simulations indicate that this wave can be stable in the system with asymmetric thresholds; there are no stable bright-dark pulses when the thresholds are symmetric. In the latter case, the pulse splits up into a tristable front and a bistable one that propagate with different speeds. This phenomenon is related to a specific feature of the wave behavior in the tristable system, the multiwave regime of propagation, i.e., the coexistence of several waves with different profile shapes and propagation speeds at the same values of the model parameters.

Oscillatory multipulsons: Dissipative soliton trains in bistable reaction-diffusion systems with cross diffusion of attractive-repulsive type

One-dimensional localized sequences of bound (coupled) traveling pulses, wave trains with a finite number of pulses, are described in a piecewise-linear reaction-diffusion system of the FitzHugh-Nagumo type with linear cross-diffusion terms of opposite signs. The simplest case of two bound pulses, the paired-pulse waves (pulse pairs), is solved analytically. The solutions contain oscillatory tails in the wave profiles so that the pulse pairs consist of a double-peak core and wavy edges. Several pulse pairs with different profile shapes and propagation speeds can appear for the same parameter values of the model when the cross diffusion is dominant. The more general case of many bound pulses, multipulse waves, is studied numerically. It is shown that, dependent on the values of the cross-diffusion coefficients, the multipulse waves upon collision can pass through one another with unchanged size and shape, exhibiting soliton behavior. Moreover, multipulse collisions with the system boundaries can generate a rich variety of wave transformations: the transition from the multipulse waves to pulse-front waves and further to simple fronts or to annihilation as well the transition to solitary pulses or to multipulse waves with lower numbers of pulses. Analytical and numerical results for the pulse pairs agree well with each other.

Oscillatory pulse-front waves in a reaction-diffusion system with cross diffusion

We explore traveling waves with oscillatory tails in a bistable piecewise linear reaction-diffusion system of the FitzHugh-Nagumo type with linear cross diffusion. These waves differ fundamentally from the standard simple fronts of the kink type. In contrast to kinks, the waves studied here have a complex shape profile with a front-back-front (a pulse-front) pattern. The characteristic feature of such pulse-front waves is a hybrid type of the speed diagram, which on the one hand reflects the typical dynamical behavior of the fronts in the FitzHugh-Nagumo model, related to the nonequilibrium Ising-Bloch bifurcation, and on the other hand exhibits also the solitary pulse scenario where several waves appear simultaneously with different speeds of propagation. We describe analytically the wave profiles and heteroclinic trajectories in the phase plane and discuss their morphology and transformation. The phenomena of wave formation and propagation are also studied by numerical simulations of the model partial differential equations. These simulations support the view that the pulse-front waves are constructed of fronts and pulses.

Revealing new dynamical patterns in a reaction-diffusion model with cyclic competition via a novel computational framework

Understanding how patterns and travelling waves form in chemical and biological reaction-diffusion models is an area which has been widely researched, yet is still experiencing fast development. Surprisingly enough, we still do not have a clear understanding about all possible types of dynamical regimes in classical reaction-diffusion models, such as Lotka-Volterra competition models with spatial dependence. In this study, we demonstrate some new types of wave propagation and pattern formation in a classical three species cyclic competition model with spatial diffusion, which have been so far missed in the literature. These new patterns are characterized by a high regularity in space, but are different from patterns previously known to exist in reaction-diffusion models, and may have important applications in improving our understanding of biological pattern formation and invasion theory. Finding these new patterns is made technically possible by using an automatic adaptive finite element method driven by a novel a posteriori error estimate which is proved to provide a reliable bound for the error of the numerical method. We demonstrate how this numerical framework allows us to easily explore the dynamical patterns in both two and three spatial dimensions.

Oscillatory pulses and wave trains in a bistable reaction-diffusion system with cross diffusion

We study waves with exponentially decaying oscillatory tails in a reaction-diffusion system with linear cross diffusion. To be specific, we consider a piecewise linear approximation of the FitzHugh-Nagumo model, also known as the Bonhoeffer-van der Pol model. We focus on two types of traveling waves, namely solitary pulses that correspond to a homoclinic solution, and sequences of pulses or wave trains, i.e., a periodic solution. The effect of cross diffusion on wave profiles and speed of propagation is analyzed. We find the intriguing result that both pulses and wave trains occur in the bistable cross-diffusive FitzHugh-Nagumo system, whereas only fronts exist in the standard bistable system without cross diffusion.

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.

Wavy fronts in a hyperbolic FitzHugh-Nagumo system and the effects of cross diffusion

We study a hyperbolic version of the FitzHugh-Nagumo (also known as the Bonhoeffer-van der Pol) reaction-diffusion system. To be able to obtain analytical results, we employ a piecewise linear approximation of the nonlinear kinetic term. The hyperbolic version is compared with the standard parabolic FitzHugh-Nagumo system. We completely describe the dynamics of wavefronts and discuss the properties of the speed equation. The nonequilibrium Ising-Bloch bifurcation of traveling fronts is found to occur in the hyperbolic case as well as in the parabolic system. Waves in the hyperbolic case typically propagate with lower speeds, in absolute value, than waves in the parabolic one. We find the interesting feature that the hyperbolic and parabolic front trajectories coincide in the phase plane for the FitzHugh-Nagumo model with a diagonal diffusion matrix, which is the case of self-diffusion, and differ for the system with cross diffusion.