The spatio-temporal arrangement of interacting populations often influences the maintenance of species diversity and is a subject of intense research. Here, we study the spatio-temporal patterns arising from the cyclic competition between three species in two dimensions. Inspired by recent experiments, we consider a generic metapopulation model comprising rock-paper-scissors interactions via dominance removal and replacement, reproduction, mutations, pair-exchange and hopping of individuals. By combining analytical and numerical methods, we obtain the models phase diagram near its Hopf bifurcation and quantitatively characterize the properties of the spiraling patterns arising in each phase. The phases characterizing the cyclic competition away far from the Hopf bifurcation (at low mutation rate) are also investigated. Our analytical approach relies on the careful analysis of the properties of the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation derived through a controlled (perturbative) multiscale expansion around the models Hopf bifurcation. Our results allows us to clarify when spatial rock-paper-scissors competition leads to stable spiral waves and under which circumstances they are influenced by nonlinear mobility.
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