Quantitative Diffusive Limits for Singular Nonlocal Transport

Abstract

We study the nonlocal continuity equation \[ \partial_t\mu_b =\operatorname{div}\!\left( \mu_b\nabla\log\bigl((I-b^2\Delta)^{-1}\mu_b\bigr) \right) \] on a closed connected Riemannian manifold. For smooth strictly positive initial data, we prove that as $b \to 0$, its global solution converges to heat flow $\mu(t)$ at the sharp, uniform-in-time rate \[ \sup_{t\ge0}\|\mu_b(t)-\mu(t)\|_{L^1}\le Cb^2. \] The key estimate is the uniform dissipation of a $b$-weighted higher-order resolvent energy, which yields exponential relaxation despite the absence of a Wasserstein gradient-flow structure. On the circle, we also analyze the corresponding deterministic $N$-particle dynamics. A weak--strong modulated energy argument gives \[ \mathbb E\!\left[ \sup_{t\ge0}W_1(\mu_b^N(t),\mu_b(t)) \right] \le C(Nb)^{-1/2} \] for iid initialization. Consequently, the choice $b\asymp N^{-1/5}$ approximates heat flow uniformly in time at rate $N^{-2/5}$.