Pattern formation of bulk-surface reaction-diffusion systems in a ball

Abstract

Weakly nonlinear amplitude equations are derived for the onset of spatially extended patterns on a general class of 𝑛-component bulk-surface reaction-diffusion systems in a ball, under the assumption of linear kinetics in the bulk and coupling Robin-type boundary conditions. Linear analysis shows conditions under which various pattern modes can become unstable to either generalized pitchfork or transcritical bifurcations, depending on the parity of the spatial wavenumber. Weakly nonlinear analysis is used to derive general expressions for the multicomponent amplitude equations of different patterned states. These reduced-order systems are found to agree with prior normal forms for pattern formation bifurcations with 𝑂⁡(3) symmetry, and they provide information on the stability of bifurcating patterns of different symmetry types. The analysis is complemented with numerical results using a dedicated bulk-surface finite element method. The theory is illustrated in two examples: a bulk-surface version of the Brusselator and a four-component bulk-surface cell-polarity model.