Quasi self-similarity and its application to the global in time solvability of a superlinear heat equation

TL;DR

This paper investigates the conditions under which solutions to a superlinear heat equation exist globally in time, identifying critical initial decay rates through the analysis of quasi self-similar solutions.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of quasi self-similarity to characterize the critical decay rate for initial data ensuring global existence of solutions.

Findings

Critical decay rate characterized by quasi self-similar solutions.

Derived a nonlinear elliptic equation for the quasi self-similar profile.

Established conditions for global existence versus blow-up based on initial decay.

Abstract

This paper concerns the global in time existence of solutions for a semilinear heat equation \begin{equation} \tag{P} \label{eq:P} \begin{cases} \partial_t u = \Delta u + f(u), &x\in \mathbb{R}^N, \,\,\, t>0, \\[3pt] u(x,0) = u_0(x) \ge 0, &x\in \mathbb{R}^N, \end{cases} \end{equation} where $N\ge 1$, $u_0$ is a nonnegative initial function and $f\in C^1([0,\infty)) \cap C^2((0,\infty))$ denotes superlinear nonlinearity of the problem. We consider the global in time existence and nonexistence of solutions for problem~\eqref{eq:P}. The main purpose of this paper is to determine the critical decay rate of initial functions for the global existence of solutions. In particular, we show that it is characterized by quasi self-similar solutions which are solutions $W$ of \begin{equation} \notag \Delta W + \frac{y}{2}\cdot \nabla W + f(W)F(W) + f(W) + \frac{|\nabla W|^2}{f(W)F(W)} \Bigl[ q - f'(W)F(W) \Bigr] = 0, \quad y \in \mathbb{R}^N, \end{equation} where $F(s):=\displaystyle\int_s^{\infty}\dfrac{1}{f(\eta)}d\eta$ and $q\ge 1$.