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TheIsing modelof statistical physics has served as a keystone example of phase transitions, thermodynamic limits, scaling laws, and many other phenomena and mathematical methods. We introduce and explore anIsing game, a variant of the Ising model that features competing agents influencing the behavior of the spins. With long-range interactions, we consider a mean-field limit resulting in a nonlocal potential game at the mesoscopic scale. This game exhibits a phase transition and multiple constant Nash-equilibria in the supercritical regime. Our analysis focuses on a sharp interface limit for which potential minimizing solutions to the Ising game concentrate on two of the constant Nash-equilibria. We show that the mesoscopic problem can be recast as a mixed local/nonlocal space-time Allen-Cahn type minimization problem. We prove, using a Γ-convergence argument, that the limiting interface minimizes a space-time anisotropic perimeter type energy functional. This macroscopic scale problem could also be viewed as a problem of optimal control of interface motion. Sharp interface limits of Allen-Cahn type functionals have been well studied. We build on that literature with new techniques to handle a mixture of local derivative terms and nonlocal interactions. The boundary conditions imposed by the game theoretic considerations also appear as novel terms and require special treatment.

 

We consider a model of congestion dynamics with chemotaxis, where the density of cells follows the chemical signal it generates, while observing an incompressibility constraint (incompressible parabolic-elliptic Patlak-Keller-Segel model). We show that when the chemical diffuses slowly and attracts the cells strongly, then the dynamics of the congested cells is well approximated by a surface-tension driven free boundary problem. More precisely, we rigorously establish the convergence of the solution to the characteristic function of a set whose evolution is determined by the classical Hele-Shaw free boundary problem with surface tension.

The problem is set in a bounded domain, which leads to an interesting analysis on the limiting boundary conditions. Namely, we prove that the assumption of Robin boundary conditions for the chemical potential leads to a contact angle condition for the free interface (in particular Neumann boundary conditions lead to an orthogonal contact angle condition, while Dirichlet boundary conditions lead to a tangential contact angle condition).

 

In this paper, we study a tumor growth model with nutrients. The model presents dynamic patch solutions due to the incompressibility of the tumor cells. We show that when the nutrients do not diffuse and the cells do not die, the tumor density exhibits regularizing dynamics thanks to an unexpected comparison principle. Using the comparison principle, we provide quantitative$L^1$-contraction estimates and establish the$C^{1,\alpha }$-boundary regularity of the tumor patch. Furthermore, whenever the initial nutrient$n_0$either lies entirely above or entirely below the critical value$n_0=1$, we are able to give a complete characterization of the long-time behavior of the system. When$n_0$is constant, we can even describe the dynamics of the full system in terms of some simpler nutrient-free and parameter-free model problems. These results are in sharp contrast to the observed behavior of the models either with nutrient diffusion or with death rate in tumor cells.

 

Abstract We consider a model of congestion dynamics with chemotaxis: the density of cells follows a chemical signal it generates, while subject to an incompressibility constraint. The incompressibility constraint results in the formation of patches , describing regions where the maximal density has been reached. The dynamics of these patches can be described by either Hele-Shaw or Richards equation type flow (depending on whether we consider the model with diffusion or the model with pure advection). Our focus in this paper is on the construction of weak solutions for this problem via a variational discrete time scheme of JKO type. We also establish the uniqueness of these solutions. In addition, we make more rigorous the connection between this incompressible chemotaxis model and the free boundary problems describing the motion of the patches in terms of the density and associated pressure variable. In particular, we obtain new results characterising the pressure variable as the solution of an obstacle problem and prove that in the pure advection case the dynamic preserves patches.