Self-similar fast-reaction limits for reaction–diffusion systems on unbounded domains

Abstract

We present a unified approach to characterising fast-reaction limits of systems of either two reaction–diffusion equations, or one reaction–diffusion equation and one ordinary differential equation, on unbounded domains, motivated by models of fast chemical reactions where either one or both reactant(s) is/are mobile. For appropriate initial data, solutions of four classes of problems each converge in the fast-reaction limit k→∞ to a self-similar limit profile that has one of four forms, depending on how many components diffuse and whether the spatial domain is a half or whole line. For fixed k, long-time convergence to these same self-similar profiles is also established, thanks to a scaling argument of Kamin. Our results generalise earlier work of Hilhorst, van der Hout and Peletier to a much wider class of problems, and provide a quantitative description of the penetration of one substance into another in both the fast-reaction and long-time regimes.