Asymptotic behavior and sharp estimates for spreading fronts in a cooperative system with free boundaries

Abstract This paper investigates the dynamics of a reaction-diffusion system with two free boundaries, modeling the invasion of two cooperative species, where the free boundaries represent expanding fronts. We first analyze the long-term behavior of the system, showing that it follows a spreading-vanishing dichotomy: the two species either spread across the entire region or eventually die out. In the case of spreading, we determine the asymptotic spreading speed of the fronts by using a semi-wave system and provide sharp estimates for the moving fronts. Additionally, we show that the solution to the system converges to the corresponding semi-wave solution as time tends to infinity. These results contribute to a deeper understanding of the long-term dynamics of cooperative species in reaction-diffusion systems with free boundaries.