Abstract
The applicability of the Fisher equation, which combines diffusion with logistic nonlinearity, to population dynamics of bacterial colonies is studied with the help of explicit analytic solutions for the spatial distribution of a stationary bacterial population under a static mask. The mask protects bacteria from ultraviolet light. The solution, which is in terms of Jacobian elliptic functions, is used to provide a practical prescription to extract Fisher equation parameters from observations and to decide on the validity of the Fisher equation.
- Received 23 October 2002
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.67.051921
©2003 American Physical Society