Qualitative analysis of an autocatalytic chemical reaction model with decay

In this paper, we revisit a reaction–diffusion autocatalytic chemical reaction model with decay. For higher-order reactions, we prove that the system possesses at least two positive steady-state solutions; hence, it has bistable dynamics similar to the system without decay. For the linear reaction, we determine the necessary and sufficient condition to ensure the existence of a solution. Moreover, in the one-dimensional case, we prove that the positive steady-state solution is unique. Our results demonstrate the drastic difference in dynamics caused by the order of chemical reactions.