Global solvability of chemotaxis-fluid systems with nonlinear diffusion and matrix-valued sensitivities in three dimensions

Abstract

In this work we extend a recent result to chemotaxis fluid systems which include matrix-valued sensitivity functions $S(x,n,c):\Omega \times [0,\infty {)}^2\to {\mathbb{R}}^{3\times 3}$ in addition to the porous medium type diffusion, which were discussed in the previous work. Namely, we will consider the system \begin{align*} \left\{ \begin{array}{r@{\,}c@{\,}c@{\ }l@{\quad}l@{\quad}l@{\,}c} n_{t}&+&u\cdot\!\nabla n&=Δn^m-\nabla\!\cdot(nS(x,n,c)\nabla c),\ &x\inΩ,& t>0,\\ c_{t}&+&u\cdot\!\nabla c&=Δc-c+n,\ &x\inΩ,& t>0,\\ u_{t}&+&(u\cdot\nabla)u&=Δu+\nabla P+n\nablaϕ,\ &x\inΩ,& t>0,\\ &&\nabla\cdot u&=0,\ &x\inΩ,& t>0, \end{array}\right. \end{align*} in a bounded domain $\Omega \subset {\mathbb{R}}^3$ with smooth boundary. Assuming that $m\ge 1$, $\alpha \ge 0$ satisfy $m+\alpha >\frac{4}{3}$, that the matrix-valued function $S(x,n,c):\Omega \times [0,\infty {)}^2\to {\mathbb{R}}^{3\times 3}$ satisfies $|S(x,n,c)|\le \frac{S_0}{(1+n{)}^{\alpha }}$ for some $S_0>0$ and suitably regular nonnegative initial data, we show that the corresponding no-flux-Dirichlet boundary value problem emits at least one global very weak solution. Upon comparison with results for the fluid-free system this condition appears to be optimal. Moreover, imposing a stronger condition for the exponents $m$ and $\alpha$, i.e. $m+2\alpha >\frac{5}{3}$, we will establish the existence of at least one global weak solution in the standard sense.

23 pages