Nonlinear Eigenvalue Problems in the Stability Analysis of Morphogen Gradients

Abstract

This paper is concerned with several eigenvalue problems in the linear stability analysis of steady state morphogen gradients for several models of Drosophila wing imaginal discs including one not previously considered. These problems share several common difficulties including the following: (a) The steady state solution which appears in the coefficients of the relevant differential equations of the stability analysis is only known qualitatively and numerically. (b) Though the governing differential equations are linear, the eigenvalue parameter appears nonlinearly after reduction to a problem for one unknown. (c) The eigenvalues are determined not only as solutions of a homogeneous boundary value problem with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions, but also by an alternative auxiliary condition to one of the Dirichlet conditions allowed by a boundary condition of the original problem. Regarding the stability of the steady state morphogen gradients, we prove that the eigenvalues must all be positive and hence the steady state morphogen gradients are asymptotically stable. The other principal finding is a novel result pertaining to the smallest (positive) eigenvalue that determines the slowest decay rate of transients and the time needed to reach steady state. Here we prove that the smallest eigenvalue does not come from the nonlinear Dirichlet eigenvalue problem but from the complementary auxiliary condition requiring only to find the smallest zero of a rational function. Keeping in mind that even the steady state solution needed for the stability analysis is only known numerically, not having to solve the nonlinear Dirichlet eigenvalue problem is both an attractive theoretical outcome and a significant computational simplification.