Hydrodynamical limit for a drift-diffusion system modeling large-population dynamics

In this paper we study the stability of the following nonlinear drift-diffusion system modeling large population dynamics ∂t ρ + div(ρU − ε∇ρ) = 0, divU = ±ρ, with respect to the viscosity parameter ε. The sign in the second equation depends on the attractive or repulsive character of the field U. A proof of the compactness and convergence properties in the vanishing viscosity regime is given. The lack of compactness in the attractive case is caused by the blow-up of the solution which depends on the mass and on the space dimension. Our stability result is connected, depending of the character of the potentials, with models in semiconductor theory or in biological population.  2003 Published by Elsevier Inc.