Mode-Wise Spectral Criteria for Coupled Mass Transport in Hybrid PDE--ODE Tumor Microenvironments

Abstract

We study coupled mass transport in a tumor--microenvironment setting with two motile densities $(S,R)$ and non-motile state switching $(P,A)$. The populations diffuse and undergo chemotactic drift; $(P,A)$ follow pointwise ODE switching. A decoupled inhibitory field $D$ satisfies a damped Neumann heat equation, giving maximum-principle bounds and exponential decay. Together with the pointwise invariant $P+A$, these identities yield global existence, positivity, and long-time reduction to limiting $(S,R)$ kinetics with a unique globally attracting coexistence state. Neumann eigenmode reduction gives closed dispersion relations. The base $(S,R)$ reaction--diffusion block remains stable for all nonconstant modes for any $d_S,d_R>0$, excluding classical Turing destabilization. Chemotaxis is posed via a diffusive cue $c$, since $\nabla A$ is undefined for non-diffusive $A$. In one-way damped coupling, the linearized mode matrix is block triangular and leaves the $(S,R)$ spectrum unchanged. Two-way coupling adds a feedback rank-one mobility correction, induces effective cross-diffusion, and admits mode growth. We give explicit trace/determinant criteria for unstable Laplacian modes and the resulting instability thresholds.