Stability of localized wave fronts in bistable systems

Abstract

Localized wave fronts are a fundamental feature of biological systems from cell biology to ecology. Here, we study a broad class of bistable models subject to self-activation, degradation and spatially inhomogeneous activating agents. We determine the conditions under which wave-front localization is possible and analyze the stability thereof with respect to extrinsic perturbations and internal noise. It is found that stability is enhanced upon regulating a positional signal and, surprisingly, also for a low degree of binding cooperativity. We further show a contrasting impact of self-activation to the stability of these two sources of destabilization.