Existence of Global Weak Solutions to an Inhomogeneous Doi Model for Active Liquid Crystals

Abstract

In this paper, we consider an inhomogeneous Doi model which was introduced by W. E and P. Zhang [Meth. Appl. of Anal., 13 (2006), pp. 181 - 198]. We extend their model, which couples a Smoluchowski equation to a Navier-Stokes type equation, for active particles by introducing an additional stress tensor. Exploiting the energetic and entropic structure of the system, we establish the existence of global-in-time weak solutions in two and three space dimensions for both passive and active particles. In particular, our result holds for minimal regularity assumptions on the initial data and without restrictions on the Reynolds and Deborah number.