Diffusion-Reaction Epidemic Model with a Free Boundary

Abstract

This study investigates an SEIS PDE model with a free boundary, which captures the dynamics of epidemic transmission, including diseases like COVID-19. This parabolic PDE system is analyzed in a rotationally symmetric domain, and the existence and uniqueness of the local solution are established through the straightening lemma. Furthermore, the existence and uniqueness of the global solution are established under specific conditions on the diffusion coefficients. Then the model introduces the basic reproductive number, $R_0$, which provides sufficient conditions for determining whether the disease will vanish or spread. Notably, when $R_0<1$, the disease-free equilibrium(DFE) is shown to be globally stable, and when $R_0>1$, the DFE is unstable. Lastly, we investigate the convergence speed of solutions by applying nonlinear elliptic eigenvalue techniques to the associated parabolic PDE system.