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Abstract We analyze spatial spreading in a population model with logistic growth and chemorepulsion. In a parameter range of short-range chemo-diffusion, we use geometric singular perturbation theory and functional-analytic farfield-core decompositions to identify spreading speeds with marginally stable front profiles. In particular, we identify a sharp boundary between between linearly determined, pulled propagation, and nonlinearly determined, pushed propagation, induced by the chemorepulsion. The results are motivated by recent work on singular limits in this regime using PDE methods (Grietteet al2023J. Funct. Anal.285110115). 

We determine the asymptotic spreading speed of the solutions of a Fisher-KPP reaction-diffusion equation, starting from compactly supported initial data, when the diffusion coefficient is a fixed bounded monotone profile that is shifted at a given forcing speed and satisfies a general uniform ellipticity condition. Depending on the monotonicity of the profile, we are able to characterize this spreading speed as a function of the forcing speed and the two linear spreading speeds associated to the asymptotic problems at \begin{document}$$ x = \pm \infty $$\end{document}. Most notably, when the profile of the diffusion coefficient is increasing we show that there is an intermediate range for the forcing speed where spreading actually occurs at a speed which is larger than the linear speed associated with the homogeneous state around the position of the front. We complement our study with the construction of strictly monotone traveling front solutions with strong exponential decay near the unstable state when the profile of the diffusion coefficient is decreasing and in the regime where the forcing speed is precisely the selected spreading speed.