Slow motion of quasi-stationary multi-pulse solutions by semistrong interaction in reaction-diffusion systems

Abstract

In this paper, we study a class of singularly perturbed reaction-diffusion systems, which exhibit under certain conditions slowly varying multi-pulse solutions. This class contains among others the Gray-Scott and several versions of the Gierer-Meinhardt model. We first use a classical singular perturbation approach for the stationary problem and determine in this way a manifold of quasi-stationary N-pulse solutions. Then, in the context of the time-dependent problem, we derive an equation for the leading order approximation of the slow motion along this manifold. We apply this technique to study 1-pulse and 2-pulse solutions for classical and modified Gierer-Meinhardt system. In particular, we are able to treat different types of boundary conditions, calculate folds of the slow manifold, leading to slow-fast motion, and to identify symmetry breaking singularities in the manifold of 2-pulse solutions.