A Sharp Global Boundedness Result for Keller--Segel--(Navier--)Stokes Systems with Rapid Diffusion and Saturated Sensitivities
Minh Le
TL;DR
The paper proves sharp global boundedness results for the Keller–Segel–(Navier)–Stokes system in a bounded domain for $N=2,3$. In 2D, with $\kappa=1$ and $\lim_{\xi\to\infty} S(\xi)=0$, the authors obtain a global classical solution uniformly bounded in time; in 3D, with $\kappa=0$ and $|S(\xi)|\le K_S(\xi+1)^{-\alpha}$ with $\alpha>\tfrac{1}{3}$, they establish a global bounded classical solution. The approach hinges on a cascade of a priori estimates: energy bounds for the fluid, logarithmic entropy bounds for the cell density, $L^p$ bounds for $n$ and $c$, and finally a Moser–Trudinger–type bootstrap combined with Stokes semigroup smoothing to reach $L^{\infty}$ control. The results are optimal in light of known blow-up phenomena for constant $S$ in 2D and for $\alpha\le\tfrac{1}{3}$ in 3D, highlighting the critical role of rapid diffusion and saturated chemotactic sensitivity in preventing blow-up. This provides a rigorous foundation for global well-posedness of chemotaxis–fluid models under sharply decaying or saturating sensitivities, with potential implications for mathematical biology and fluid-chemotaxis coupling analysis.
Abstract
We investigate the Keller--Segel--(Navier--)Stokes system posed in a smooth bounded domain \(Ω\subset \mathbb{R}^N\) with \(N = 2,3\): \begin{equation*} \begin{cases} n_t + u \cdot \nabla n = Δn - \nabla \cdot \big( n S(n)\nabla c \big), \\[2mm] u \cdot \nabla c = Δc - c + n, \\[2mm] u_t + κ(u \cdot \nabla) u = Δu - \nabla P + n \nabla φ, \\[2mm] \nabla \cdot u = 0, \end{cases} \end{equation*} where \(κ\in \left \{0,1 \right \} \), the given gravitational potential \(φ\in W^{2, \infty}(Ω)\), and the chemotactic sensitivity function \(S \in C^2([0,\infty))\). Under no-flux boundary conditions for \(n\) and \(c\), together with the Dirichlet boundary condition for \(u\), we show that, provided the initial data satisfy suitable regularity assumptions, the following results hold: \begin{itemize} \item If \(N = 2\), \(κ= 1\), and the sensitivity function satisfies \(\lim_{ξ\to \infty} S(ξ) = 0\), then the Keller--Segel--Navier--Stokes system admits a global classical solution that remains uniformly bounded in time. \item If \(N = 3\), \(κ= 0\), and \(S\) satisfies \[ |S(ξ)| \le K_S (ξ+ 1)^{-α} \quad \text{for all } ξ\ge 0, \] with some constants \(K_S > 0\) and \(α> \frac{1}{3}\), then the Keller--Segel--Stokes system possesses a global bounded classical solution. \end{itemize} Our results are optimal, since it is well established that, in the absence of fluid effects, blow-up can occur when $S \equiv \mathrm{const}$ in two dimensions, or when $α< \tfrac{1}{3}$ in three dimensions.