Nonlinear Stability of Nonconstant Steady States in Chemotaxis--Consumption Systems with General Motility

Abstract

We prove nonlinear stability of positive nonconstant steady states for a chemotaxis--consumption system with nutrient-dependent motility and a fixed boundary nutrient concentration $b$. The motility satisfies two monotonicity conditions met by power laws and saturating functions. For each prescribed population mass, sufficiently large nutrient diffusivity $D$ yields a unique positive steady state. Small compatible perturbations generate unique global solutions converging exponentially to the steady state with their conserved mass. The result holds on general bounded domains in two and three dimensions, with a lower-regularity version on an interval. At order $D^{-1}$, the nutrient deficit is the torsion function multiplied by the mean population density and boundary nutrient value; the population contrast also depends on $κ_b=bϕ'(b)/ϕ(b)$. Computations illustrate relaxation from compatible data and convergence to different steady states when the initial mass changes.