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Updated: Jun 5, 2026

Monitoring Spatial Segregation in Surface Colonizing Microbial Populations
Published on: October 29, 2016
Cyclic competition of mobile species on continuous space: pattern formation and coexistence
Xuan Ni1, Wen-Xu Wang, Ying-Cheng Lai
1Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.
None:
We propose a model for cyclically competing species on continuous space and investigate the effect of the interplay between the interaction range and mobility on coexistence. A transition from coexistence to extinction is uncovered with a strikingly nonmonotonic behavior in the coexistence probability. About the minimum in the probability, switches between spiral and plane-wave patterns arise. A strong mobility can either promote or hamper coexistence, depending on the radius of the interaction range. These phenomena are absent in any lattice-based model, and we demonstrate that they can be explained using nonlinear partial differential equations. Our continuous-space model is more physical and we expect the findings to generate experimental interest.
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