We show that functional differential equations of mixed type (MFDEs) with infinite range discrete and/or continuous interactions admit exponential dichotomies, building on the Fredholm theory developed by Faye and Scheel for such systems. For the half line, we refine the earlier approach by Hupkes and Verduyn Lunel. For the full line, we construct these splittings by generalizing the finite-range results obtained by Mallet-Paret and Verduyn Lunel. The finite dimensional space that is ‘missed’ by these splittings can be characterized using the Hale inner product, but the resulting degeneracy issues raise subtle questions that are much harder to resolve than in the finite-range case. Indeed, there is no direct analogue for the standard ‘atomicity’ condition that is typically used to rule out degeneracies, since it explicitly references the smallest and largest shifts.

We construct alternative criteria that exploit finer information on the structure of the MFDE. Our results are optimal when the coefficients are cyclic with respect to appropriate shift semigroups or when the standard positivity conditions typically associated to comparison principles are satisfied. We illustrate these results with explicit examples and counter-examples that involve the Nagumo equation.@en

We investigate the impact of spatial-temporal discretisation schemes on the dynamics of a class of reaction-diffusion equations that includes the FitzHugh-Nagumo system. For the temporal discretisation we consider the family of six backward differential formula (BDF) methods, which includes the well-known backward-Euler scheme. The spatial discretisations can feature infinite-range interactions, allowing us to consider neural field models. We construct travelling wave solutions to these fully discrete systems in the small time-step limit by viewing them as singular perturbations of the corresponding spatially discrete system. In particular, we refine the previous approach by Hupkes and Van Vleck for scalar fully discretised systems, which is based on a spectral convergence technique that was developed by Bates, Chen and Chmaj.

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We survey some recent results on traveling waves and pattern formation in spatially discrete bistable reaction-diffusion equations. We start by recalling several classic results concerning the existence, uniqueness and stability of travelling wave solutions to the discrete Nagumo equation with nearest-neighbour interactions, together with the Fredholm theory behind some of the proofs. We subsequently discuss extensions involving wave connections between periodic equilibria, long-range interactions and planar lattices. We show how some of the results can be extended to the two-component discrete FitzHugh–Nagumo equation, which can be analyzed using singular perturbation theory. We conclude by studying the behaviour of the Nagumo equation when discretization schemes are used that involve both space and time, or that are non-uniform but adaptive in space.@en

We establish the existence and nonlinear stability of traveling wave solutions for a class of lattice differential equations (LDEs) that includes the discrete FitzHugh--Nagumo system with alternating scale-separated diffusion coefficients. In particular, we view such systems as singular perturbations of spatially homogeneous LDEs, for which stable traveling wave solutions are known to exist in various settings. The two-periodic waves considered in this paper are described by singularly perturbed multicomponent functional differential equations of mixed type (MFDEs). In order to analyze these equations, we generalize the spectral convergence technique that was developed by Bates, Chen, and Chmaj to analyze the scalar Nagumo LDE. This allows us to transfer several crucial Fredholm properties from the spatially homogeneous to the spatially periodic setting. Our results hence do not require the use of comparison principles or exponential dichotomies.@en

We establish the existence and nonlinear stability of travelling pulse solutions for the discrete FitzHugh-Nagumo equation with infinite-range interactions close to the continuum limit. For the verification of the spectral properties, we need to study a functional differential equation of mixed type (MFDE) with unbounded shifts. We avoid the use of exponential dichotomies and phase spaces, by building on a technique developed by Bates, Chen and Chmaj for the discrete Nagumo equation. This allows us to transfer several crucial Fredholm properties from the PDE setting to our discrete setting.@en