Concentration waves of chemotactic bacteria: The discrete velocity case

Abstract

The existence of travelling waves for a coupled system of hyperbolic/ parabolic equations is established in the case of a finite number of velocities in the kinetic equation. This finds application in collective motion of chemotactic bacteria. The analysis builds on the previous work by the first author (arXiv:1607.00429) in the case of a continuum of velocities. Here, the proof is specific to the discrete setting, based on the decomposition of the population density in special Case’s modes. Some counter-intuitive results are discussed numerically, including the co-existence of several travelling waves for some sets of parameters, as well as the possible non-existence of travelling waves.