Well-posedness of the Optimal Control Problem Related to Degenerate Chemo-attraction Models

This paper delves into the mathematical analysis of optimal control for a nonlinear degenerate chemotaxis model with volume-filling effects. The control is applied in a bilinear form specifically within the chemical equation. We establish the well-posedness (existence and uniqueness) of the weak solution for the direct problem using the Faedo Galerkin method (for existence), and the duality method (for uniqueness). Additionally, we demonstrate the existence of minimizers and establish first-order necessary conditions for the adjoint problem. The main novelty of this work concerns the degeneracy of the diffusive term and the presence of control over the concentration in our nonlinear degenerate chemotaxis model. Furthermore, the state, consisting of cell density and chemical concentration, remains in a weak setting, which is uncommon in the literature for solving optimal control problems involving chemotaxis models.