Stability of Localized Wave Fronts in Bistable Systems

Localized wave fronts are a fundamental feature of biological
systems from cell biology to ecology. Here, we study a broad class
of bistable models subject to self-activation, degradation, and
spatially inhomogeneous activating agents. We determine the
conditions under which wave-front localization is possible and
analyze the stability thereof with respect to extrinsic
perturbations and internal noise. It is found that stability is
enhanced upon regulating a positional signal and, surprisingly,
also for a low degree of binding cooperativity. We further show a
contrasting impact of self-activation to the stability of these two
sources of destabilization. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.038102