Three- and four-state rock-paper-scissors games with diffusion

Cyclic dominance of three species is a commonly occurring interaction dynamics, often denoted the rock-paper-scissors (RPS) game. Such type of interactions is known to promote species coexistence. Here, we generalize recent results of Reichenbach et al. (e.g. Nature 448, 1046 (2007)) of a four-state variant of RPS. We show that spiral formation takes place only without a conservation law for the total density. Nevertheless, in general fast diffusion can destroy species coexistence. We also generalize the four-state model to slightly varying reaction rates. This is shown both analytically and numerically not to change pattern formation, or the effective wave length of the spirals, and therefore does not alter the qualitative properties of the cross-over to extinction.