Blow up profiles for a quasilinear reaction-diffusion equation with weighted reaction

We perform a thorough study of the blow up profiles associated to the following second order reaction-diffusion equation with non-homogeneous reaction: $$\partial_tu=\partial_{xx}(u^m) + |x|^{\sigma}u^p,$$ in the range of exponents $10$. We classify blow up solutions in self-similar form, that are likely to represent typical blow up patterns for general solutions. We thus show that the non-homogeneous coefficient $|x|^{\sigma}$ has a strong influence on the qualitative aspects related to the finite time blow up. More precisely, for $\sigma\sim0$, blow up profiles have similar behavior to the well-established profiles for the homogeneous case $\sigma=0$, and typically \emph{global blow up} occurs, while for $\sigma>0$ sufficiently large, there exist blow up profiles for which blow up \emph{occurs only at space infinity}, in strong contrast with the homogeneous case. This work is a part of a larger program of understanding the influence of unbounded weights on the blow up behavior for reaction-diffusion equations

Aggregation-diffusion equations: dynamics, asymptotics, and singular limits

Given a large ensemble of interacting particles, driven by nonlocal interactions and localized repulsion, the mean-field limit leads to a class of nonlocal, nonlinear partial differential equations known as aggregation-diffusion equations. Over the past fifteen years, aggregation-diffusion equations have become widespread in biological applications and have also attracted significant mathematical interest, due to their competing forces at different length scales. These competing forces lead to rich dynamics, including symmetrization, stabilization, and metastability, as well as sharp dichotomies separating well-posedness from finite time blowup. In the present work, we review known analytical results for aggregation-diffusion equations and consider singular limits of these equations, including the slow diffusion limit, which leads to the constrained aggregation equation, as well as localized aggregation and vanishing diffusion limits, which lead to metastability behavior. We also review the range of numerical methods available for simulating solutions, with special attention devoted to recent advances in deterministic particle methods. We close by applying such a method -- the blob method for diffusion -- to showcase key properties of the dynamics of aggregation-diffusion equations and related singular limits

A Finite-Volume Method for Nonlinear Nonlocal Equations with a Gradient Flow Structure

We propose a positivity preserving entropy decreasing finite volume scheme for nonlinear nonlocal equations with a gradient flow structure. These properties allow for accurate computations of stationary states and long-time asymptotics demonstrated by suitably chosen test cases in which these features of the scheme are essential. The proposed scheme is able to cope with non-smooth stationary states, different time scales including metastability, as well as concentrations and self-similar behavior induced by singular nonlocal kernels. We use the scheme to explore properties of these equations beyond their present theoretical knowledge