Traveling-Wave Solutions for an Einstein-Type Material-Balance Model of the Chemotactic Transport

Abstract

We develop a nonlinear continuum transport model for localized traveling structures in a coupled two-phase medium. The model is derived from an Einstein-type material-balance formulation combining diffusion with directed transport induced by the relative gradient of an evolving background phase. The resulting system couples diffusion, nonlinear gradient-driven transport, and irreversible background depletion. The framework provides a mathematical model for chemotactic transport and a possible modeling perspective for processes associated with the formation of oil and gas deposits. We analyze traveling-wave solutions and identify beta = chi/D = 1 as the critical threshold for globally positive localized traveling bands under prescribed asymptotic conditions as the traveling coordinate s tends to plus or minus infinity. Such bands exist for beta greater than or equal to 1, whereas for 0 < beta < 1 the positive branch reaches zero background concentration at a finite traveling coordinate. For beta greater than or equal to 1, explicit profiles are obtained and, for fixed wave speed c > 0 and right-end state V_plus > 0, are unique up to spatial translation in the traveling coordinate s. We further derive the variable-coefficient linearized perturbation operator and establish a conditional finite-time a priori estimate for the mobile-phase perturbation under bounded background forcing using a maximum-principle argument.

37 pages, 1 figure