The small-convection limit in a two-dimensional chemotaxis-Navier-Stokes system (Q1650169)

The authors study the initial-boundary value problem for the system of chemotaxis-fluid equations \[ n_t+u\cdot\nabla n=\Delta n-\nabla\cdot(n\nabla c), \] \[ c_t+u\cdot\nabla c=\Delta c -nc, \] \[ u_t+\kappa (u\cdot\nabla u)=\Delta u-\nabla P+n\nabla\phi, \] \[ \nabla\cdot u=0 \] in a bounded convex domain of the plane. The main result is that solutions with \(\kappa\to 0\) stabilize exponentially in \(L^\infty\) norm to the solution of the Stokes model with \(\kappa=0\). A quasi-energy functional is an important tool in the proof of uniform estimates of solutions with \(\kappa\in(-1,1)\). This result provides an example of a rigorous quantification of stability properties in the Stokes limit process, i.e. for chemotaxis-fluid systems in applications involving small Reynolds numbers.