Notes on finite difference schemes to a parabolic-elliptic system modelling chemotaxis (Q814697)

The authors consider the following problem: To find two unknown functions \(u(x,t)\) and \(v(x,t), \) \((x,t)\in \overline{\Omega} \times [0,T]\) that satisfy a parabolic-elliptic system \[ \frac{\partial u}{\partial t}=\nabla \times(\nabla u - u \nabla v), \quad \Delta v- a v + u=0, \qquad in \,\, \Omega\times(0,T), \tag{1} \] with boundary conditions \[ \frac{\partial u}{\partial \nu} -u \frac{\partial v}{\partial \nu} =0, \quad \frac{\partial v}{\partial \nu} =0 \text{ on } \partial \Omega \times(0,T) \] and with the initial condition \(u(x,0)=u_0(x)\) on \(\Omega.\) Here \(\Omega \subset \mathbb R^d,\, d=1,2,\) denotes a bounded domain with the boundary \(\partial \Omega;\) \(\nabla\) the gradient; \(\nu\) the outer unit normal vector to \(\partial \Omega;\) \( \partial \nu\) the differentiation along normal vector to \(\partial \Omega;\) \(a\) a positive constant; \(u_0(x)\) is assumed to be smooth, nonnegative, and not identically zero. The conservation of the positivity: \(u(x,t)>0\,\, \in \Omega \times(0,T]\) and the conservation of the total mass: \( \int_\Omega u(x,t) dx = \int_\Omega u_0(x) d x,\) \(t \in [0,T]\) hold true for the problem (1).