Global mass-preserving solutions to a chemotaxis-fluid model involving Dirichlet boundary conditions for the signal

Abstract

The chemotaxis-Stokes system [Formula: see text] is considered subject to the boundary condition [Formula: see text] with [Formula: see text] and a given nonnegative function [Formula: see text]. In contrast to the well-studied case when the second requirement herein is replaced by a homogeneous Neumann boundary condition for [Formula: see text], the Dirichlet condition imposed here seems to destroy a natural energy-like property that has formed a core ingredient in the literature by providing comprehensive regularity features of the latter problem. This paper attempts to suitably cope with accordingly poor regularity information in order to nevertheless derive a statement on global existence within a generalized framework of solvability which involves appropriately mild requirements on regularity, but which maintains mass conservation in the first component as a key solution property.