New Exact Solutions of Spatially and Temporally Varying Reaction-Diffusion Equations

Nalini Joshi and Tegan Morrison

Abstract

This paper considers reaction diffusion equations from a new point of view, by including spatiotemporal dependence in the source terms. We show for the first time that solutions are given in terms of the classical Painlevé transcendents. We consider reaction diffusion equations with cubic and quadratic source terms. A new feature of our analysis is that the coefficient functions are also solutions of differential equations, including the Painlevé equations. Special cases arise with elliptic functions as solutions. Additional solutions given in terms of equations that do not have the Painlevé property are also considered. Solutions are constructed using a Lie symmetry approach.