Paper detail

Drifting solitary waves in a reaction-diffusion medium with differential advection

Propagation of solitary waves in the presence of autocatalysis, diffusion, and symmetry breaking (differential) advection, is being studied. The focus is on drifting (propagating with advection) pulses that form via a convective instability at lower reaction rates of the autocatalytic activator, i.e. the advective flow overcomes the fast excitation and induces a drifting fluid type behavior. Using spatial dynamics analysis of a minimal case model, we present the properties and the organization of such pulses. The insights underly a general understanding of localized transport in simple reaction-diffusion-advection models and thus provide a background to potential chemical and biological applications.