Boundedness and stabilization enforced by mild saturation of taxis in a producer-scrounger model (Q2215479)

The authors study the taxis system \[\begin{cases} u_t = \Delta u - \nabla \cdot (u(u+1)^{\beta -1} \nabla w), & \quad (x,t) \in \Omega \times (0,\infty), \\ v_t = \Delta v - \nabla \cdot (v(v+1)^{\alpha -1} \nabla u), & \quad (x,t) \in \Omega \times (0,\infty), \\ w_t = \Delta w -(u+v)w - \lambda w + g(x,t), & \quad (x,t) \in \Omega \times (0,\infty), \end{cases} \] endowed with homogeneous Neumann boundary conditions and nonnegative initial conditions \(u_0, v_0, w_0 \in W^{2,\infty} (\Omega)\) such that \(u_0 \not\equiv 0\) and \(v_0 \not\equiv 0\), where \(\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^n\), \(n \ge 2\), is a bounded domain with smooth boundary, \(\lambda >0\), \(\beta <1 \), \(\alpha < \frac{n+2}{2n}\), and \(g \in C^1(\overline{\Omega} \times[0,\infty)) \cap L^\infty (\Omega \times (0,\infty))\). The system describes a foreager-prey model, where \(w\) denotes the prey density and the foreagers consist of producers with density \(u\) and scroungers with density \(v\). The producers move toward increasing prey densities, while the scroungers move toward increasing producer densities. Assuming that the above conditions are satisfied, the authors prove the existence of a global classical solution. If in addition \(\lim_{t \to \infty} \int_t^{t+1}\int_\Omega g^2(x,s) \, dx ds =0\), then \((u,v,w)(t) \to (\overline{u_0}, \overline{v_0}, 0)\) as \(t \to \infty\) in \((L^\infty (\Omega))^3\), where \(\overline{u_0} := \frac{1}{|\Omega|}\int_\Omega u_0(x) \, dx\) is the spatial average. The proof of the global existence relies on proving a series of estimates for the solution components. Therein, a uniform estimate for \(u(t)\) in \(L^p(\Omega)\) for any \(p \in (1,\infty)\) is proved with a weighted integral approach and weighted maximal Sobolev regularity. The most difficult estimate for \(v(t)\) in \(L^p(\Omega)\) for any \(p \in (1,\infty)\) is based on a loop of weighted estimates based on weighted maximal Sobolev regularity and is reduced to an estimate of \(\Delta u\), which in turn is reduced to estimating \(\Delta w\). The latter is finally reduced to an estimate of \(v\) which can be absorbed by a diffusion term. Such a loop seems to be new in the context of analysis of foreager-prey models.