Traveling waves for a diffusive SEIR epidemic model with standard incidences

Abstract

This paper is devoted to the existence of the traveling waves of the equations describing a diffusive susceptible-exposed-infected-recovered (SEIR) model. The existence of traveling waves depends on the basic reproduction rate and the minimal wave speed. We obtain a more precise estimation of the minimal wave speed of the epidemic model, which is of great practical value in the control of serious epidemics. The approach in this paper is to use the Schauder fixed point theorem and the Laplace transform. We also give some numerical results on the minimal wave speed.