Generalized principal eigenvalues for heterogeneous road-field systems

This paper develops the notion and properties of the generalized principal eigenvalue for an elliptic system coupling an equation in a plane with one on a line in this plane, together with boundary conditions that express exchanges taking place between the plane and the line. This study is motivated by the reaction-diffusion model introduced by H. Berestycki, J.-M. Roquejoffre and L. Rossi [8] to describe the effect on biological invasions of networks with fast diffusion imbedded in a field. Here we study the eigenvalue associated with heterogeneous generalizations of this model. In a forthcoming work [5] we show that persistence or extinction of the associated nonlinear evolution equation is fully accounted for by this generalized eigenvalue. A key element in the proofs is a new Harnack inequality that we establish for these systems and which is of independent interest.