Existence of global solutions for a chemotaxis-fluid system with nonlinear diffusion

Abstract

We consider a coupled system consisting of the Navier-Stokes equations and a porous medium type of Keller-Segel system that model the motion of swimming bacteria living in fluid and consuming oxygen. We establish the global-in-time existence of weak solutions for the Cauchy problem of the system in dimension three. In addition, if the Stokes system, instead Navier-Stokes system, is considered for the fluid equation, we prove that bounded weak solutions exist globally in time.