SPOT BIFURCATIONS IN 3-COMPONENT REACTION-DIFFUSION SYSTEMS - THE ONSET OF PROPAGATION

We present an analytical investigation of the bifurcation from station ary to traveling localized solutions in a three-component reaction-dif fusion system of arbitrary dimension with one activator and two inhibi tors. We show that increasing one of the inhibitors' time constants le ads to such a bifurcation. For a limit case, which comprises the full range of stationary two-component patterns, the bifurcation is supercr itical and no other bifurcation precedes it. Bifurcation points and ve locities close to the branching point are predicted from the shape of the stationary solution. Existence and stability of the traveling solu tion are checked by means of multiple scales perturbation theory. Nume rical simulations agree with the analytical results.