Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-topics-in-applied-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2010/a/2/c/ii/solution

Yes. An immobile concentration can still change locally through reaction while diffusing transports activation. Vanishing diffusion of one component does not prohibit a propagating reaction front.
In the invariant special case , the first equation is already Fisher's equation with growth coefficient one, so it has travelling fronts regardless of . A one-diffuser reaction front also gives a coupled example with nonzero . For , the equations with are
For , choose , , and set
Indeed and , giving the second equation. In the first, division by leaves , whose constant and coefficients both vanish with these choices. Ahead of the left-moving wave ; behind it . This explicitly demonstrates a travelling front with substrate depletion but no diffusion, rather than relying solely on the uncoupled special case.

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