Change of Bifurcation Type in 2D Free Boundary Model of a Moving Cell with Nonlinear Diffusion

Abstract We introduce a 2D free boundary problem with nonlinear diffusion that models a living cell moving on a substrate. We prove that this nonlinearity results in a qualitative change of solution behavior compared to the linear diffusion case (Rybalko and Berlyand 2023), namely the switch between supercritical and subcritical pitchfork bifurcation. Our objectives are twofold: (i) develop a rigorous framework to prove existence of bifurcation and determine its type (subcritical vs. supercritical) and (ii) the derivation of explicit analytical formulas that control the change of bifurcation type in terms of physical parameters and explain the underlying biophysical mechanisms. While the standard way of applying the Crandall–Rabinowitz theorem via the solution operator seems difficult in our quasilinear PDE system, we apply the theorem directly, by developing a multidimensional, vectorial framework. To determine the bifurcation type, we extract the curvature of the bifurcating curve from the expansion of the solutions around the steady state. The formula for the curvature is obtained via a solvability condition where instead of the Fredholm alternative, we propose a test function trick, suited for free boundary problems. Our rigorous analytical results are in agreement with numerical observations from the physical literature in 1D (Drozdowski et al. 2023) and provide the first extension of this phenomenon to a 2D free boundary model.