Steady-state solutions for a reaction-diffusion equation with Robin boundary conditions: Application to the control of dengue vectors

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate an initial-boundary-value problem of a reaction-diffusion equation in a bounded domain with a Robin boundary condition and introduce some particular parameters to consider the non-zero flux on the boundary. This problem arises in the study of mosquito populations under the intervention of the population replacement method, where the boundary condition takes into account the inflow and outflow of individuals through the boundary. Using phase-plane analysis, the present paper studies the existence and properties of non-constant steady-state solutions depending on several parameters. Then, we use the principle of linearized stability to prove some sufficient conditions for their stability. We show that the long-time efficiency of this control method depends strongly on the size of the treated zone and the migration rate. To illustrate these theoretical results, we provide some numerical simulations in the framework of mosquito population control.