Grow-up rate and refined asymptotics for a two-dimensional Patlak-Keller-Segel model in a disk

Abstract

We consider a special case of the Patlak-Keller-Segel system in a disc, which arises in the modelling of chemotaxis phenomena. For a critical value of the total mass, the solutions are known to be global in time but with density becoming unbounded, leading to a phenomenon of mass-concentration in infinite time. We establish the precise grow-up rate and obtain refined asymptotic estimates of the solutions. Unlike in most of the similar, recently studied, grow-up problems, the rate is neither polynomial nor exponential. In fact, the maximum of the density behaves like $e^{\sqrt{2t}}$ for large time. In particular, our study provides a rigorous proof of a behaviour suggested by Sire and Chavanis [Phys. Rev. E, 2002] on the basis of formal arguments.