Different description levels of chemical wave front and propagation speed selection

Abstract

The results of stochastic descriptions and microscopic simulations of a chemical wave front propagating into an unstable stationary state are compared to investigate the problem of speed selection. Three different effects, the space discretization, the mean number of particles in a cell, and the deviation from equilibrium molecular velocity distribution, are shown to induce corrections to the propagation speed predicted by a macroscopic continuous description. The speed correction due to the perturbation of the particle velocity distribution in the presence of a fast reaction is isolated from the other effects.