title: Isothermal flame balls.
abstract: The existence of steady, spherically symmetric wave fronts ("isothermal flame balls") in chemical reaction systems exhibiting autocatalysis is demonstrated. Such solutions require relatively high kinetic orders p with respect to the autocatalytic species, with p>5, but occur even with equal diffusion coefficients. The flame balls are unstable, but have relevance as they indicate the minimum size for a perturbation to initiate a propagating front. A flame ball radius R(b) is identified and the dependence of this quantity on the autocatalytic order is determined. This shows R(b) tending to infinity as p-->5(+) and as p--> infinity, with a minimum for p approximately 6.71. Numerical computations are confirmed by asymptotic analysis appropriate for p-->5(+) and for systems with p large.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Chemistry, University of Szeged, P.O. Box 105, Szeged H-6701, Hungary.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Jakab
authors.forename: Dezso
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Horváth
authors.forename: John H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Merkin
authors.forename: Stephen K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: Péter L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Simon
authors.forename: Agota
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tóth