We consider the Halfin–Whitt diffusion process Xd(t), which is used, for example, as an approximation to the m-server M/M/m queue. We use recently obtained integral representations for the transient density p(x,t) of this diffusion process, and obtain various asymptotic results for the density. The asymptotic limit assumes that a drift parameter β in the model is large, and the state variable x and the initial condition x0 (with Xd(0) = x0 > 0) are also large. We obtain some alternate representations for the density, which involve sums and/or contour integrals, and expand these using a combination of the saddle point method, Laplace method and singularity analysis. The results give some insight into how steady state is achieved, and how if x0 > 0 the probability mass migrates from Xd(t) > 0 to the range Xd(t) < 0, which is where it concentrates as t → ∞, in the limit we consider. We also discuss an alternate approach to the asymptotics, based on geometrical optics and singular perturbation techniques.

We consider a cell growth model involving a nonlinear system of partial differential equations which describes the growth of two types of cell populations with contact inhibition. Numerical experiments show that there is a parameter regime where, for a large class of initial data, the large time behaviour of the solutions is described by a segregated travelling wave solution with positive wave speed c. Here, the word segregated expresses the fact that the different types of cells are spatially segregated, and that the single densities are discontinuous at the moving interface which separates the two populations. In this paper, we show that, for each wave speed c > c, there exists an overlapping travelling wave solution, whose profile is continuous and no longer segregated. We also show that, for a large class of initial functions, the overlapping travelling wave solutions cannot represent the large time profile of the solutions of the system of partial differential equations. The structure of the travelling wave solutions strongly resembles that of the scalar Fisher-KPP equation, for which the special role played by the travelling wave solution with minimal speed has been extensively studied.

In the limit of an asymptotically large diffusivity ratio of order $\mathcal{O}$(ϵ−2) ≫ 1, steady-state spatially periodic patterns of localized spots, where the spots are centred at lattice points of a Bravais lattice, are well-known to exist for certain two-component reaction–diffusion systems (RD) in $\mathbb{R}$2. For the Schnakenberg RD model, such a localized periodic spot pattern is linearly unstable when the diffusivity ratio exceeds a certain critical threshold. However, since this critical threshold has an infinite-order logarithmic series in powers of the logarithmic gauge ν ≡ −1/log ϵ, a low-order truncation of this series is expected to be in rather poor agreement with the true stability threshold unless ϵ is very small. To overcome this difficulty, a hybrid asymptotic-numerical method is formulated and implemented that has the effect of summing this infinite-order logarithmic expansion for the stability threshold. The numerical implementation of this hybrid method relies critically on obtaining a rapidly converging infinite series representation of the regular part of the Bloch Green's function for the reduced-wave operator. Numerical results from the hybrid method for the stability threshold associated with a periodic spot pattern on a regular hexagonal lattice are compared with the two-term asymptotic results of [10] (Iron et al. J. Nonlinear Science, 2014). As expected, the difference between the two-term and hybrid results is rather large when ϵ is only moderately small. A related hybrid method is devised for accurately approximating the stability threshold associated with a periodic pattern of localized spots for the Gray-Scott RD system in $\mathbb{R}$2.

The present paper investigates the mechanism of interface closure in the root region of the solutions for steady deep-cellular growth. This phenomenon is determined by a transcendentally small factor beyond all orders. It is found that the root region comprises three inner-inner regions; the inner system in the root region has a simple turning point, whose presence generates the so-called trapped-waves mechanism, which is responsible for the interface closure at the bottom of root. The quantization condition derived from the trapped-waves mechanism yields the eigenvalue that determines the location of interface closure and its dependence on the interfacial energy and other physical parameters.

We develop a mathematical model in hydrodynamic lubrication that takes into account three phenomena: cavitation, surface roughness and compressibility of the fluid. Like the classical Reynolds equation, the model is mass preserving. We compute the homogenized coefficients in the case of unidirectional roughness. A one-dimensional problem is also solved explicitly.