Cross-diffusion on multiplex networks

Abstract

Abstract During the past decades, pattern formulation with reaction–diffusion systems has attracted great research interest. Complex networks, from single-layer networks to more complicated multiplex networks, have made great contribution to the development of this area, especially with emergence of Turing patterns. While among vast majority of existing works on multiplex networks, they only take into account the simple case with ordinary diffusion, which is termed as self-diffusion. However, cross-diffusion, as a significant phenomenon, reveals the direction of species’ movement, and is widely found in chemical, biological and physical systems. Therefore, we study the pattern formulation on multiplex networks with the presence of both self-diffusion and cross-diffusion. Of particular interest, heterogeneous patterns with abundant characteristics are generated, which cannot arise in other systems. Through linear analysis, we theoretically derive the Turing instabilities region. Besides, our numerical experiments also generate diverse patterns, which verify the theoretical prediction in our work and show the impact of cross-diffusion on pattern formulation on multiplex networks.