Hölder estimates of weak solutions to degenerate chemotaxis systems with a source term (Q6155305)

Let \((u,v)\in \) be a locally bounded weak solution to the chemotaxis system \begin{align*} \partial_t u & = \mathrm{div}\big( \nabla u^m - \chi u^{\mathfrak{q}-1} \nabla v \big) + B(x,t,u,\nabla u), \quad (x,t)\in \mathbb{R}^N \times (0,T), \\ \tilde{\tau} \partial_t v & = \Delta v - a v + u, \quad (x,t)\in \mathbb{R}^N\times (0,T), \end{align*} supplemented with non-negative initial conditions \(u_0\in L^1(\mathbb{R}^N)\cap L^\infty(\mathbb{R}^N)\) and \(\tilde{\tau} v_0\in L^1(\mathbb{R}^N)\cap W^{1,p}(\mathbb{R}^N)\) satisfying \(u_0^m \in H^1(\mathbb{R}^N)\). Here, \(N\ge 2\), \(m\ge 1\), \( \mathfrak{q}\le \max\{(m+1)/2,2\}\), \(\chi>0\), \(a>0\), \(\tilde{\tau}\ge 0\), \(T>0\), and the source term \(B\) satisfies the growth condition \(|B(x,t,u,\nabla u)| \le C |\nabla u^m|^2 + \phi(x,t)\) for some \(C>0\) and \(\phi\in L^r(0,T;L^q(\mathbb{R}^N))\). It is shown that there is \(\alpha_0\in (0,1)\) such that, for every \(\varepsilon\in (0,T)\), there exists a constant \(\gamma(\varepsilon)>0\) such that \[ \left| u^m(x_1,t_1) - u^m(x_2,t_2) \right| \le \gamma(\varepsilon) \left( |x_1-x_2|^{\alpha_0} + |t_1-t_2|^{\alpha_0/2} \right) \] for all pairs \((x_1,t_1)\) and \((x_2,t_2)\) in \(\mathbb{R}^N\times (\varepsilon,T)\). The proof relies on the De Giorgi-DiBenedetto approach to establish the regularity of degenerate parabolic problems.