Advection-Driven Support Shrinking in a Chemotaxis Model with Degenerate Mobility

We derive sufficient conditions for advection-driven backward motion of the free boundary in a chemotaxis model with degenerate mobility. In this model, a porous-medium-type diffusive term and an advection term are in competition. The former induces forward motion, the latter may induce backward motion of the free boundary depending on the direction of advection. We deduce conditions on the growth of the initial data at the free boundary which ensure that at least initially the advection term is dominant. This implies local backward motion of the free boundary provided the advection is (locally) directed appropriately. Our result is based on a new class of moving test functions and Stampacchia’s lemma. As a by-product of our estimates, we obtain quantitative bounds on the spreading of the support of solutions for the chemotaxis model and provide a proof for the finite speed of the support propagation property of solutions.