Free boundary problems of a mutualist model with nonlocal diffusions

TL;DR

This paper investigates a mutualist model with nonlocal diffusions and free boundaries, establishing existence, uniqueness, and diverse long-term behaviors influenced by kernel functions, contrasting with local diffusion models.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis of a mutualist model with nonlocal diffusions and free boundaries, revealing rich dynamics and criteria for spreading and vanishing.

Findings

Unique solutions with spreading-vanishing dichotomy

Rich long-term behaviors depending on kernel functions

Extension to models with double free boundaries

Abstract

A mutualist model with nonlocal diffusions and a free boundary is first considered. We prove that this problem has a unique solution defined $t\ge0$, and its dynamics are governed by a spreading-vanishing dichotomy. Some criteria for spreading and vanishing are also given. Of particular importance is that we find that the solution of this problem has quite rich longtime behaviors, which vary with the conditions satisfied by kernel functions and are much different from those of the counterpart with local diffusion and free boundary. At last, we extend these results to the model with nonlocal diffusions and double free boundarie