Minimal Wave Speed for a Nonlocal Viral Infection Dynamical Model

To provide insights into the spreading speed and propagation dynamics of viruses within a host, in this paper, we investigate the traveling wave solutions and minimal wave speed for a degenerate viral infection dynamical model with a nonlocal dispersal operator and saturated incidence rate. It is found that the minimal wave speed c∗ is the threshold that determines the existence of traveling wave solutions. The existence of traveling fronts connecting a virus-free steady state and a positive steady state with wave speed c≥c∗ is established by using Schauder’s fixed-point theorem, limiting arguments, and the Lyapunov functional. The nonexistence of traveling fronts for c<c∗ is proven by the Laplace transform. In particular, the lower-bound estimation of the traveling wave solutions is provided by adopting a rescaling method and the comparison principle, which is a crucial prerequisite for demonstrating that the traveling semifronts connect to the positive steady state at positive infinity by using the Lyapunov method and is a challenge for some nonlocal models. Moreover, simulations show that the asymptotic spreading speed may be larger than the minimal wave speed and the spread of the virus may be postponed if the diffusion ability or diffusion radius decreases. The spreading speed may be underestimated or overestimated if local dispersal is adopted.