Singularities in $L^1$-supercritical Fokker--Planck equations: A qualitative analysis

Abstract

A class of nonlinear Fokker--Planck equations with superlinear drift is investigated in the L1-supercritical regime, which exhibits a finite critical mass. The equations have a formal Wasserstein-like gradient-flow structure with a convex mobility and a free energy functional whose minimising measure has a singular component if above the critical mass. Singularities and concentrations also arise in the evolutionary problem and their finite-time appearance constitutes a primary technical difficulty. This paper aims at a global-in-time qualitative analysis -- the main focus being on isotropic solutions, in which case the unique minimiser of the free energy will be shown to be the global attractor. A key step in the analysis consists in properly controlling the singularity profiles during the evolution. Our study covers the 3D Kaniadakis--Quarati model for Bose--Einstein particles, and thus provides a first rigorous result on the continuation beyond blow-up and long-time asymptotic behaviour for this model.