  We consider the phenomenon of collapse in the critical Keller-Segel equation
(KS) which models chemotactic aggregation of micro-organisms underlying many
social activities, e.g. fruiting body development and biofilm formation. Also
KS describes the collapse of a gas of self-gravitating Brownian particles. We
find the fluctuation spectrum around the collapsing family of steady states for
these equations, which is instrumental in derivation of the critical collapse
law. To this end we develop a rigorous version of the method of matched
asymptotics for the spectral analysis of a class of second order differential
operators containing the linearized Keller-Segel operators (and as we argue
linearized operators appearing in nonlinear evolution problems). We explain how
the results we obtain are used to derive the critical collapse law, as well as
for proving its stability.
