On the analogy between self-gravitating Brownian particles and bacterial populations
We develop the analogy between self-gravitating Brownian particles and bacterial populations. In the high friction limit, the self-gravitating Brownian gas is described by the Smoluchowski-Poisson system. These equations can develop a self-similar collapse leading to a finite time singularity. Coincidentally, the Smoluchowski-Poisson system corresponds to a simplified version of the Keller-Segel model of bacterial populations. In this biological context, it describes the chemotactic aggregation...