The singular limit of a chemotaxis-growth system with general initial data (Q930329)

The singular limit \(\varepsilon\to 0\) is analyzed for the chemotaxis-growth model \[ \begin{aligned} \partial_t u^\varepsilon = & \nabla\cdot \left( \nabla u^ \varepsilon - u^ \varepsilon\;\nabla \chi(v^\varepsilon) \right) + \frac{1}{\varepsilon^2}\;f(u^ \varepsilon) + \frac{1}{\varepsilon}\;g(u^ \varepsilon), \quad (t,x)\in (0,T)\times\Omega,\\ 0 = & \Delta v^\varepsilon + u^ \varepsilon - \gamma\;v^ \varepsilon, \quad (t,x)\in (0,T)\times\Omega, \end{aligned} \] supplemented with homogeneous Neumann boundary conditions for \(u^ \varepsilon\) and \(v^ \varepsilon\) and a non-negative initial condition \(u_0\in C^2(\bar{\Omega})\) for \(u^\varepsilon\). Here, \(\Omega\) is a smooth bounded domain of \({\mathbb R}^N\), \(N\geq 2\), \(\gamma>0\), \(f(u) = u(1-u)(u-1/2)\) and \(g(u)=\alpha u (1-u)\). The function \(u_0\) is such that the set \(\Gamma_0=\{u_0=1/2\}\) is a smooth hypersurface without boundary in \(\Omega\) which encloses the region \(\{u_0>1/2\}\). For well-prepared initial data, it has been shown in [\textit{A. Bonami, D. Hilhorst, E. Logak} and \textit{M. Mimura}, Adv. Differ. Equ. 6, No. 10, 1173--1218 (2001; Zbl 1016.35034)] that there is a time \(T>0\) such that \((u^\varepsilon,v^\varepsilon)\) converges in a suitable sense towards the classical solution \((\Gamma_t)_{t\in [0,T]}\) to the free boundary problem \(V_n = -(N-1)\kappa + \partial_n \chi(v^0) + \sqrt{2}\alpha\) on \(\Gamma_t\) with initial condition \(\Gamma_0\). Here, \(n\) denotes the exterior normal to \(\Gamma_t\), \(V_n\) the normal velocity in the exterior direction, \(\kappa\) the mean curvature, and \(v^0\) solves the elliptic equation \(-\Delta v^ 0 + \gamma\;v^ 0 = u^ 0\) in \((0,T)\times\Omega\) with homogeneous Neumann boundary conditions, the function \(u^0(t,.)\) being equal to \(1\) in the region enclosed in \(\Gamma_t\) and \(0\) elsewhere. The results in the paper under review relax the assumptions on the initial condition \(u_0\) and provide more precise information concerning the generation and motion of the interface \(\Gamma_t\) and its connection with the sets \(\Gamma_t^\varepsilon=\{u^\varepsilon(t,.)=1/2\}\). More precisely, it is shown that \(u^\varepsilon\) starts to look like \(u^0\) for \(t\geq 4\varepsilon^2 | \ln{\varepsilon}| \) and that \(\Gamma_t^\varepsilon\) lies within a neighbourhood of \(\Gamma_t\) with width of order \(\varepsilon\). This last result improves previously known estimates which were of order \(\varepsilon | \ln{\varepsilon}| \).