Well-posedness of aggregation-diffusion systems with irregular kernels (Q7311591)

This paper studies aggregation-diffusion equations with bounded, non-differentiable, and not necessarily positive (semi-)definite nonlocal interaction potentials \(K\), for which classical variational or semigroup methods fail. \N\NThe authors prove weak well-posedness in two regimes: (i) small initial mass, treating the interaction as a perturbation of linear diffusion; and (ii) symmetric BV kernels, where they exploit a novel dissipation-of-free-energy mechanism to obtain a priori estimates. This second approach is particularly remarkable, as it bypasses regularity and convexity assumptions entirely.\N\NUnder the additional condition \(\nabla K*K\in L^2\), uniqueness of strong solutions is established. Moreover, when \(K\) is the characteristic function of a ball, classical unique solutions are explicitly constructed. The results are further extended to multi-species systems under suitable structural conditions.\N\NThis work opens a new paradigm for handling rough interaction kernels, with significant implications for biological and physical models where non-smooth, non-convex potentials naturally arise.