Front propagation in reaction-diffusion systems with anomalous diffusion

TL;DR

This paper numerically investigates how anomalous diffusion affects front propagation in reaction-diffusion systems, revealing exponential acceleration, algebraic tails, and the interplay between regular and fractional diffusion.

Contribution

It introduces a numerical method for simulating anomalous diffusion in reaction-diffusion systems and analyzes the effects of fractional and tempered fractional diffusion on front dynamics.

Findings

Fractional diffusion causes exponential front acceleration.

Algebraic decay tails develop in the fronts.

Regular diffusion delays the onset of acceleration.

Abstract

A numerical study of the role of anomalous diffusion in front propagation in reaction-diffusion systems is presented. Three models of anomalous diffusion are considered: fractional diffusion, tempered fractional diffusion, and a model that combines fractional diffusion and regular diffusion. The reaction kinetics corresponds to a Fisher-Kolmogorov nonlinearity. The numerical method is based on a finite-difference operator splitting algorithm with an explicit Euler step for the time advance of the reaction kinetics, and a Crank-Nicholson semi-implicit time step for the transport operator. The anomalous diffusion operators are discretized using an upwind, flux-conserving, Grunwald-Letnikov finite-difference scheme applied to the regularized fractional derivatives. With fractional diffusion of order $\alpha$, fronts exhibit exponential acceleration, $a_L(t) \sim e^{\gamma t/\alpha}$, and develop algebraic decaying tails, $\phi \sim 1/x^{\alpha}$. In the case of tempered fractional diffusion, this phenomenology prevails in the intermediate asymptotic regime $\left(\chi t \right)^{1/\alpha} \ll x \ll 1/\lambda$, where $1/\lambda$ is the scale of the tempering. Outside this regime, i.e. for $x > 1/\lambda$, the tail exhibits the tempered decay $\phi \sim e^{-\lambda x}/x^{\alpha+1}$, and the front velocity approaches the terminal speed $v_*= \left(\gamma-\lambda^\alpha \chi\right)/ \lambda$. Of particular interest is the study of the interplay of regular and fractional diffusion. It is shown that the main role of regular diffusion is to delay the onset of front acceleration. In particular, the crossover time, $t_c$, to transition to the accelerated fractional regime exhibits a logarithmic scaling of the form $t_c \sim \log \left(\chi_d/\chi_f\right)$ where $\chi_d$ and $\chi_f$ are the regular and fractional diffusivities.