Equilibria of an aggregation model with linear diffusion in domains with boundaries

Abstract

We investigate the effect of linear diffusion and interactions with the domain boundary on swarm equilibria by analyzing critical points of the associated energy functional. Through this process we uncover two properties of energy minimization that depend explicitly on the spatial domain: (i) unboundedness from below of the energy due to an imbalance between diffusive and aggregative forces depends explicitly on a certain volume filling property of the domain, and (ii) metastable mass translation occurs in domains without sufficient symmetry. From the first property, we present a sharp condition for existence (respectively non-existence) of global minimizers in a large class of domains, analogous to results in free space, and from the second property, we identify that external forces are necessary to confine the swarm and grant existence of global minimizers in general domains. We also introduce a numerical method for computing critical points of the energy and give examples to motivate further research.