Stability and Bifurcation Analysis of Fractional-Order Delayed Prey–Predator System and the Effect of Diffusion

Abstract

Most biological systems have long-range temporal memory. Such systems can be modeled using fractional-order differential equations. The combination of fractional-order derivative and time delay provides the system more consistency with the reality of the interactions and higher degree of freedom. A fractional-order delayed prey–predator system with the fear effect has been proposed in this work. The time delay is considered in the cost of fear; therefore, there are no dynamical changes observed in the system due to time delay in the absence of fear. The existence and uniqueness of the solutions of the proposed system are studied along with non-negativity and boundedness. The existence of biologically relevant equilibria is discussed, and the conditions for local asymptotic stability are derived. Hopf bifurcation occurs in the system with respect to delay parameter. Further, a spatially extended system is proposed and analyzed. Hopf bifurcation also occurs in the extended system due to the delay parameter. Numerical examples are provided in support of analytical findings. Fractional-order derivative improves the stability and damps the oscillatory behaviors of the solutions of the system. Bistability behavior of the system admits stable dynamics by decreasing the fractional-order. Also, chaotic behavior is destroyed by decreasing fractional-order.