Asymptotic behaviour for small mass in the two-dimensional parabolic–elliptic Keller–Segel model

The Keller–Segel system describes the collective motion of cells that are attracted by a chemical substance and are able to emit it. In its simplest form, it is a conservative drift-diffusion equation for the cell density coupled to an elliptic equation for the chemo-attractant concentration. This paper deals with the rate of convergence towards a unique stationary state in self-similar variables, which describes the intermediate asymptotics of the solutions in the original variables. Although it is known that solutions globally exist for any mass less 8π, a smaller mass condition is needed in our approach for proving an exponential rate of convergence in self-similar variables.