Quantified overdamped limit for kinetic Vlasov-Fokker-Planck equations with singular interaction forces

Abstract: We establish a quantitfied overdamped limit for kinetic Vlasov-Fokker-Planck equations with nonlocal interaction forces. We provide explicit bounds on the error between solutions of that kinetic equation and the limiting equation, which is known under the names of aggregation-diffusion equation or McKean-Vlasov equation. Introducing an intermediate system via a coarse-graining map, we quantitatively estimate the error between the spatial densities of the Vlasov-Fokker-Planck equation and the intermediate system in the Wasserstein distance of order 2. We then derive an evolution-variational-like inequality for Wasserstein gradient flows which allows us to quantify the error between the intermediate system and the corresponding limiting equation. Our strategy only requires weak integrability of the interaction potentials, thus in particular it includes the quantified overdamped limit of the kinetic Vlasov-Poisson-Fokker-Planck system to the aggregation-diffusion equation with either repulsive electrostatic or attractive gravitational interactions.