Blow-up in multidimensional aggregation equations with mildly singular interaction kernels

We consider the multidimensional aggregation equation u t − ∇· ( u ∇ K * u ) = 0 in which the radially symmetric attractive interaction kernel has a mild singularity at the origin (Lipschitz or better). In the case of bounded initial data, finite time singularity has been proved for kernels with a Lipschitz point at the origin (Bertozzi and Laurent 2007 Commun. Math. Sci. 274 717–35), whereas for C 2 kernels there is no finite-time blow-up. We prove, under mild monotonicity assumptions on the kernel K , that the Osgood condition for well-posedness of the ODE characteristics determines global in time well-posedness of the PDE with compactly supported bounded nonnegative initial data. When the Osgood condition is violated, we present a new proof of finite time blow-up that extends previous results, requiring radially symmetric data, to general bounded, compactly supported nonnegative initial data without symmetry. We also present a new analysis of radially symmetric solutions under less strict monotonicity conditions. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of similarity solutions for the case K ( x ) = | x | and some open problems.