Asymptotic limits for a non-linear integro-differential equation modelling leukocytes' rolling on arterial walls

Abstract

We consider a non-linear integro-differential model describing $z$, the position of the cell center on the real line presented in [Grec et al., J. Theo. Bio. 2018]. We introduce a new $\varepsilon$-scaling and we prove rigorously the asymptotics when $\varepsilon$ goes to zero. We show that this scaling characterizes the long-time behavior of the solutions of our problem in the cinematic regime (the velocity $\dot{z}$ tends to a limit). The convergence results are first given when $\psi$, the elastic energy associated to linkages, is convex and regular (the second order derivative of $\psi$ is bounded). In the absence of blood flow, when $\psi$, is quadratic, we compute the final position $z_\infty$ to which we prove that $z$ tends. We then build a rigorous mathematical framework for $\psi$ being convex but only Lipschitz. We extend convergence results with respect to $\varepsilon$ to this case when $\psi'$ admits a finite number of jumps. In the last part, we show that in the constant force case (see Model 3 in [Grec et al], $\psi$ is the absolute value), we solve explicitly the problem and recover the above asymptotic results.