Numerical simulation of a kinetic model for chemotaxis

This paper is devoted to numerical simulations of a kinetic model describing chemotaxis. This kinetic framework has been investigated since the 80's when experimental observations have shown that the motion of bacteria is due to the alternance of 'runs and tumbles'. Since parabolic and hyperbolic models do not take into account the microscopic movement of individual cells, kinetic models have become of a great interest. Dolak and Schmeiser (2005) have then proposed a kinetic model describing the motion of bacteria responding to temporal gradients of chemoattractants along their paths. An existence result for this system is provided and a numerical scheme relying on a semi-Lagrangian method is presented and analyzed. An implementation of this scheme allows to obtain numerical simulations of the model and observe blow-up patterns that differ greatly from the case of Keller-Segel type of models.