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Fully discrete positivity-preserving and energy-dissipating schemes for aggregation-diffusion equations with a gradient-flow structure. (English) Zbl 1467.35317

Summary: We propose fully discrete, implicit-in-time finite-volume schemes for a general family of non-linear and non-local Fokker-Planck equations with a gradient-flow structure, usually known as aggregation-diffusion equations, in any dimension. The schemes enjoy the positivity-preservation and energy-dissipation properties, essential for their practical use. The first-order scheme verifies these properties unconditionally for general non-linear diffusions and interaction potentials, while the second-order scheme does so provided a CFL condition holds. Sweeping dimensional splitting permits the efficient construction of these schemes in higher dimensions while preserving their structural properties. Numerical experiments validate the schemes and show their ability to handle complicated phenomena typical in aggregation-diffusion equations, such as free boundaries, metastability, merging and phase transitions.

MSC:

35Q84 Fokker-Planck equations
35B09 Positive solutions to PDEs
35R09 Integro-partial differential equations
45K05 Integro-partial differential equations
65M08 Finite volume methods for initial value and initial-boundary value problems involving PDEs
65M06 Finite difference methods for initial value and initial-boundary value problems involving PDEs
82C21 Dynamic continuum models (systems of particles, etc.) in time-dependent statistical mechanics
82C26 Dynamic and nonequilibrium phase transitions (general) in statistical mechanics