Reaction-Diffusion Models

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

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One of Alan Turing’s many contributions to mathematics and science during the 20th century was his 1952 paper on “The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis” in which he suggested that a simple model of coupled differential equations could account for pattern formation in natural processes such as those found on animal coats. Such models are known as Reaction-Diffusion models, and take the following general form

\frac{\partial}{\partial t}\mathbf{q}=\mathbf{D}\nabla^2\mathbf{q}+\mathbf{R}(\mathbf{q})

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