Finite element approximation of a nonlinear cross-diffusion population model

Summary. We consider a fully discrete finite element approximation of the nonlinear cross-diffusion population model: Find u_i, the population of the i^th species, i=1 and 2, such that where ji and g_i(u₁,u₂):=(_i–_iiu_i–_iju_j)u_i. In the above, the given data is as follows: v is an environmental potential, c_i, a_i are diffusion coefficients, b_i are transport coefficients, _i are the intrinsic growth rates, and _ii are intra-specific, whereas _ij, ij, are interspecific competition coefficients. In addition to showing well-posedness of our approximation, we prove convergence in space dimensions d3. Finally some numerical experiments in one space dimension are presented.Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 65M60, 65M12, 35K55, 92D25Acknowledgements. Part of this work was carried out while the authors participated in the 2003 programme {\it Computational Challenges in Partial Differential Equations} at the Isaac Newton Institute, Cambridge, UK.