Global convergence of a kinetic model of chemotaxis to a perturbed Keller–Segel model

We consider a class of kinetic models of chemotaxis with two positive non-dimensional parameters coupled to a parabolic equation of the chemo-attractant. If both parameters are set equal zero, we have the classical Keller–Segel model for chemotaxis. We prove global existence of solutions of this two-parameters kinetic model and prove convergence of this model to models of chemotaxis with global existence when one of these two parameters is set equal zero. In one case, we find as a limit model a kinetic model of chemotaxis while in the other case we find a perturbed Keller–Segel model with global existence of solutions.     

Critical mass phenomenon for a chemotaxis kinetic model with spherically symmetric initial data

The goal of this paper is to exhibit a critical mass phenomenon occurring in a model for cell self-organization via chemotaxis. The very well-known dichotomy arising in the behavior of the macroscopic Keller–Segel system is derived at the kinetic level, being closer to microscopic features. Indeed, under the assumption of spherical symmetry, we prove that solutions with initial data of large mass blow-up in finite time, whereas solutions with initial data of small mass do not. Blow-up is the consequence of a momentum computation and the existence part is derived from a comparison argument. Spherical symmetry is crucial within the two approaches. We also briefly investigate the drift-diffusion limit of such a kinetic model. We recover partially at the limit the Keller–Segel criterion for blow-up, thus arguing in favour of a global link between the two models.     

Prevention of blow-up by fast diffusion in chemotaxis

In this paper, we study a strongly coupled parabolic system with cross diffusion term which models chemotaxis. The diffusion coefficient goes to infinity when cell density tends to an allowable maximum value. Such ‘fast diffusion’ leads to global existence of solutions in bounded domains for any given initial data irrespective of the spatial dimension, which is usually the goal of many modifications to the classical Keller–Segel model. The key estimates that make this possible have been obtained by a technique that uses ideas from Moser's iterations.     

Global Existence for a Parabolic Chemotaxis Model with Prevention of Overcrowding

In this paper we study a version of the Keller–Segel model where the chemotactic cross-diffusion depends on both the external signal and the local population density. A parabolic quasi-linear strongly coupled system follows. By incorporation of a population-sensing (or “quorum-sensing”) mechanism, we assume that the chemotactic response is switched off at high cell densities. The response to high population densities prevents overcrowding, and we prove local and global existence in time of classical solutions. Numerical simulations show interesting phenomena of pattern formation and formation of stable aggregates. We discuss the results with respect to previous analytical results on the Keller–Segel model.     

Discontinuous Galerkin methods for the chemotaxis and haptotaxis models

In this work, first we formulate and compare three different discontinuous Interior Penalty Galerkin methods for the 2D Keller–Segel chemotaxis model. Keller–Segel chemotaxis model is the important starting step in the modeling of the real biological system. We show in the numerical tests that two of the proposed methods fail to give accurate, oscillation-free solutions.     

Instability of spikes in the presence of conservation laws

We show that spikes are unstable in a class of scalar reaction–diffusion equations coupled to a general conservation law. Our class includes the Keller–Segel model for chemotaxis, phase-field models and models for chemical reactions in closed chemical reactors.     

A second-order positivity preserving central-upwind scheme for chemotaxis and haptotaxis models

The paper is concerned with development of a new finite-volume method for a class of chemotaxis models and for a closely related haptotaxis model. In its simplest form, the chemotaxis model is described by a system of nonlinear PDEs: a convection-diffusion equation for the cell density coupled with a reaction-diffusion equation for the chemoattractant concentration. The first step in the derivation of the new method is made by adding an equation for the chemoattractant concentration gradient to the original system. We then show that the convective part of the resulting system is typically of a mixed hyperbolic-elliptic type and therefore straightforward numerical methods for the studied system may be unstable. The proposed method is based on the application of the second-order central-upwind scheme, originally developed for hyperbolic systems of conservation laws in Kurganov et al. (SIAM J Sci Comput 21:707–740, 2001), to the extended system of PDEs. We show that the proposed second-order scheme is positivity preserving, which is a very important stability property of the method. The scheme is applied to a number of two-dimensional problems including the most commonly used Keller–Segel chemotaxis model and its modern extensions as well as to a haptotaxis system modeling tumor invasion into surrounding healthy tissue. Our numerical results demonstrate high accuracy, stability, and robustness of the proposed scheme.     

Generalizing the Keller�CSegel Model: Lyapunov Functionals, Steady State Analysis, and Blow-Up Results for Multi-species Chemotaxis Models in?the?Presence of Attraction and Repulsion Between Competitive Interacting Species

In this paper we extend the famous Keller–Segel model for the chemotactic movement of motile species to some multi-species chemotaxis equations. The presented multi-species chemotaxis models are more general than those introduced so far and also include some interaction effects that have not been studied before. For example, we consider multi-species chemotaxis models with attraction and repulsion between interacting motile species. For some of the presented new models we give sufficient conditions for the existence of Lyapunov functionals. These new results are related to those of Wolansky (Scent and sensitivity: equilibria and stability of chemotactic systems in the absence of conflicts, preprint, 1998; Eur. J. Appl. Math. 13:641–661, 2002). Furthermore, a linear stability analysis is performed for uniform steady states, and results for the corresponding steady state problems are established. These include existence and nonexistence results for non-constant steady state solutions in some special cases.     

The volcano effect in bacterial chemotaxis

A population-level model of bacterial chemotaxis is derived from a simple bacterial-level model of behavior. This model, to be contrasted with the Keller–Segel equations, exhibits behavior we refer to as the “volcano effect”: steady-state bacterial aggregation forming a ring of higher density some distance away from an optimal environment. The model is derived, as in Erban and Othmer (2004) [1], from a transport equation in a state space including the internal biochemical variables of the bacteria and then simplified with a truncation at low moments with respect to these variables. We compare the solutions of the model to stochastic simulations of many bacteria, as well as the classic Keller–Segel model. This model captures behavior that the Keller–Segel model is unable to resolve, and sheds light on two different mechanisms that can cause a volcano effect.     

Diffusion-dominated asymptotics of solution to chemotaxis model

The paper contains results on the asymptotic behavior, as t → +∞, of small solutions to simplified Keller–Segel problem modeling chemotaxis in the whole space \mathbb R²{\mathbb R^2}. We prove that the multiple of the heat kernel is a surprisingly good approximation of solutions.     

One-dimensional chemotaxis kinetic model

In this paper, we study a variation of the equations of a chemotaxis kinetic model and investigate it in one dimension. In fact, we use fractional diffusion for the chemoattractant in the Othmar–Dunbar–Alt system (Othmer in J Math Biol 26(3):263–298, 1988). This version was exhibited in Calvez in Amer Math Soc, pp 45–62, 2007 for the macroscopic well-known Keller–Segel model in all space dimensions. These two macroscopic and kinetic models are related as mentioned in Bournaveas, Ann Inst H Poincaré Anal Non Linéaire, 26(5):1871–1895, 2009, Chalub, Math Models Methods Appl Sci, 16(7 suppl):1173–1197, 2006, Chalub, Monatsh Math, 142(1–2):123–141, 2004, Chalub, Port Math (NS), 63(2):227–250, 2006. The model we study here behaves in a similar way to the original model in two dimensions with the spherical symmetry assumption on the initial data which is described in Bournaveas, Ann Inst H Poincaré Anal Non Linéaire, 26(5):1871–1895, 2009. We prove the existence and uniqueness of solutions for this model, as well as a convergence result for a family of numerical schemes. The advantage of this model is that numerical simulations can be easily done especially to track the blow-up phenomenon.     

Families of traveling impulses and fronts in some models with cross-diffusion

An analysis of traveling wave solutions of partial differential equation (PDE) systems with cross-diffusion is presented. The systems under study fall in a general class of the classical Keller–Segel models to describe chemotaxis. The analysis is conducted using the theory of the phase plane analysis of the corresponding wave systems without a priory restrictions on the boundary conditions of the initial PDE. Special attention is paid to families of traveling wave solutions. Conditions for existence of front–impulse, impulse–front, and front–front traveling wave solutions are formulated. In particular, the simplest mathematical model is presented that has an impulse–impulse solution; we also show that a non-isolated singular point in the ordinary differential equation (ODE) wave system implies existence of free-boundary fronts. The results can be used for construction and analysis of different mathematical models describing systems with chemotaxis.     

Global existence and blow-up for the solutions to nonlinear parabolic-elliptic system modelling chemotaxis

In this paper we study the global in-time and blow-up solutionsfor the simplified Keller–Segel system modelling chemotaxis.We prove that there is a critical number which determines theoccurrence of blowup in the two-dimensional case for 1 <p < 2. In three- or higher-dimensional cases, we show thatthe radial symmetrical solution will blow up if 1 < p <N/N–2 (N 3) for non-negative initial value.     

Solvability of the fractional hyperbolic Keller–Segel system

We study a new nonlocal approach to the mathematical modelling of the chemotaxis problem, which describes the random motion of a certain population due to a substance concentration. Considering the initial–boundary value problem for the fractional hyperbolic Keller–Segel model, we prove the solvability of the problem. The solvability result relies mostly on fractional calculus and kinetic formulation of scalar conservation laws.     

Instability of spikes in the presence of conservation laws

We show that spikes are unstable in a class of scalar reaction–diffusion equations coupled to a general conservation law. Our class includes the Keller–Segel model for chemotaxis, phase-field models and models for chemical reactions in closed chemical reactors.     

Boundedness of the attraction–repulsion Keller–Segel system

This paper considers the initial–boundary value problem of the attraction–repulsion Keller–Segel model describing aggregation of Microglia in the central nervous system in Alzheimer's disease due to the interaction of chemoattractant and chemorepellent. If repulsion dominates over attraction, we show the global existence of classical solution in two dimensions and weak solution in three dimensions with large initial data.     

Qualitative analysis of stationary Keller–Segel chemotaxis models with logistic growth

We study the stationary Keller–Segel chemotaxis models with logistic cellular growth over a one-dimensional region subject to the Neumann boundary condition. We show that nonconstant solutions emerge in the sense of Turing’s instability as the chemotaxis rate \({\chi}\) surpasses a threshold number. By taking the chemotaxis rate as the bifurcation parameter, we carry out bifurcation analysis on the system to obtain the explicit formulas of bifurcation values and small amplitude nonconstant positive solutions. Moreover, we show that solutions stay strictly positive in the continuum of each branch. The stabilities of these steady-state solutions are well studied when the creation and degradation rate of the chemical is assumed to be a linear function. Finally, we investigate the asymptotic behaviors of the monotone steady states. We construct solutions with interesting patterns such as a boundary spike when the chemotaxis rate is large enough and/or the cell motility is small.     

Existence of weak solutions to the Keller–Segel chemotaxis system with additional cross-diffusion

In this paper, we consider the Keller–Segel chemotaxis system with additional cross-diffusion term in the second equation. This system is consisting of a fully nonlinear reaction–diffusion equations with additional cross-diffusion. We establish the existence of weak solutions to the considered system by using Schauder’s fixed point theorem, a priori energy estimates and the compactness results.     

Global existence of solutions for a nonlinearly perturbed Keller–Segel system in \mathbbR2{\mathbb{R}}^2

We show the global existence of small solution to the perturbed Keller–Segel system of simplified version. Our system has a perturbed nonlinear term of worse sign, therefore the existence and uniqueness of solution is not really obvious. The local existence theorem is obtained by a variational observation for the elliptic part.     

Stability of spiky solution of Keller–Segel's minimal chemotaxis model

A huge volume of research has been done for the simplest chemotaxis model (Keller–Segel's minimal model) and its variants, yet, some of the basic issues remain unresolved until now. For example, it is known that the minimal model has spiky steady states that can be used to model the important cell aggregation phenomenon, but the stability of monotone spiky steady states was not shown. In this paper, we derive, first formally and then rigorously, the asymptotic expansion of these monotone steady states, and then we use this fine information on the spike to prove its local asymptotic stability. Moreover, we obtain the uniqueness of such steady states. We expect that the new ideas and techniques for rigorous asymptotic expansion and spectrum analysis presented in this paper will be useful in attacking and hence stimulating research on other more sophisticated chemotaxis models.