Global solvability of chemotaxis-fluid systems with nonlinear diffusion and matrix-valued sensitivities in three dimensions

Abstract: In this work we extend a recent result to chemotaxis fluid systems which include matrix-valued sensitivity functions $S(x,n,c):\Omega\times[0,\infty)^2\to\mathbb{R}^{3\times3}$ in addition to the porous medium type diffusion, which were discussed in the previous work. Namely, we will consider the system \begin{align*} \left{ \begin{array}{r@{\,}c@{\,}c@{\ }l@{\quad}l@{\quad}l@{\,}c} n_{t}&+&u\cdot!\nabla n&=\Delta n^m-\nabla!\cdot(nS(x,n,c)\nabla c),\ &x\in\Omega,& t>0,\ c_{t}&+&u\cdot!\nabla c&=\Delta c-c+n,\ &x\in\Omega,& t>0,\ u_{t}&+&(u\cdot\nabla)u&=\Delta u+\nabla P+n\nabla\phi,\ &x\in\Omega,& t>0,\ &&\nabla\cdot u&=0,\ &x\in\Omega,& t>0, \end{array}\right. \end{align*} in a bounded domain $\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^3$ with smooth boundary. Assuming that $m\geq1$, $\alpha\geq0$ satisfy $m+\alpha>\frac43$, that the matrix-valued function $S(x,n,c):\Omega\times[0,\infty)^2\to\mathbb{R}^{3\times3}$ satisfies $|S(x,n,c)|\leq\frac{S_0}{(1+n)^{\alpha}}$ for some $S_0>0$ and suitably regular nonnegative initial data, we show that the corresponding no-flux-Dirichlet boundary value problem emits at least one global very weak solution. Upon comparison with results for the fluid-free system this condition appears to be optimal. Moreover, imposing a stronger condition for the exponents $m$ and $\alpha$, i.e. $m+2\alpha>\frac{5}{3}$, we will establish the existence of at least one global weak solution in the standard sense.