The minimal habitat size for spreading in a weak competition system with two free boundaries

In this paper, we focus on the dynamics for a Lotka–Volterra type weak competition system with two free boundaries, where free boundaries which may intersect each other as time evolves are used to describe the spreading of two competing species, respectively. In the weak competition case, the dynamics of this model can be classified into four cases, which forms a spreading–vanishing quartering. The notion of the minimal habitat size for spreading is introduced to determine if species can always spread. Some sufficient conditions for spreading and vanishing are established. Also, when spreading occurs, some rough estimates for spreading speed and the long-time behavior of solutions are established.