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Bacterial density is the number of bacteria per unit length, area or volume in a spatial model. It is a field variable, distinct from the organisms themselves.

An unbiased random walk of bacteria leads, on the continuum scale, to diffusion with coefficient $D$, represented by $D{B}_{XX}$. The cell proliferation rate $\nu GB$ is proportional both to the available biological growth factor concentration and to the bacterial density. Consumption of biological growth factor at rate $\mu GB$ gives its negative reaction term.

There is no diffusion term for $G$ because the biological growth factor is attached to the substrate rather than freely transported. There is also no chemotactic drift in this model: the specified motion is random, while the biological growth factor changes cell proliferation rather than directional movement. Both reaction terms vanish if either bacteria or biological growth factor are absent.

For the modified strain the travelling wave equations areIntegrating the second across the entire travelling wave gives ${\int }_{\mathbb{R}}gbdy=c$, since the biological growth factor profile still goes from $0$ to $1$. Integrating the first, using the constant asymptotic states and vanishing derivative at infinity, givesConsequentlyThe subtracted integral is strictly positive because the profiles are positive and $\eta >0$. It is finite: $b$ is bounded by continuity and its finite endpoint limits, and $\int gb=c$. The additional density-dependent inhibition therefore reduces the bacterial density left behind; positivity of $b_1$ is part of the assumed positive-wave solution.

At the leading edge $b\to 0$ and $g\to 1$. The linearized bacterial equation iswith characteristic exponentsFor $0<c<2$ they form a nonreal complex conjugate pair. A nonzero profile approaching the travelling front then has an exponentially decaying oscillatory leading term, and repeatedly changes sign. This is incompatible with the assumed positive bacterial density. The leading edge must therefore have real characteristic exponents, requiringAt $c=2$ the repeated characteristic exponent is $-1$ and polynomial factors in the asymptotic profile may occur. The argument supplies a necessary lower bound; it is not an independent existence proof for every speed satisfying it.