Analysis of a parabolic cross-diffusion population model without self-diffusion

The global existence of non-negative weak solutions to a strongly coupled parabolic system arising in population dynamics is shown. The cross-diffusion terms are allowed to be arbitrarily large, whereas the self-diffusion terms are assumed to disappear. The last assumption complicates the analysis since these terms usually provide H1 estimates of the solutions. The existence proof is based on a positivity-preserving backward Euler–Galerkin approximation, discrete entropy estimates, and L1 weak compactness arguments. Furthermore, employing the entropy–entropy production method, we show for special stationary solutions that the transient solution converges exponentially fast to its steady state. As a by-product, we prove that only constant steady states exist if the inter-specific competition parameters disappear no matter how strong the cross-diffusion constants are.