Asymptotic complexity in filtration equations (Q2463772): Difference between revisions

This paper concerns the asymptotic behavior as \(t\to \infty\) of finite mass nonnegative solutions of the Cauchy problems for nonlinear diffusion equations of the form \(u_t= \Delta \Phi(u)\), where \(\Phi\) is a strictly increasing and continuous function with \(\Phi(0)=0\) and smooth for \(u > 0\). Based on the results for the heat equation, the porous medium equation and their perturbations, one might conjecture that the nonlinear diffusion equations of the form \(u_t= \Delta \Phi(u)\) give always rise to simple asymptotic patterns, even to a universal profile. The purpose of this paper is to disprove this conjecture and to show that choosing the behavior of the nonlinearity \(\Phi\) near zero in a convenient way yields a quite complicated family of renormalized asymptotic patterns for the same equation and solution, even a chaotic situation. Here the solutions are renormalized at each time with respect to their own second moment as proposed in \textit{G. Toscani} [J. Evol. Equ. 5, 185--203 (2005; Zbl 1082.35091)] and \textit{J. A. Carrillo, M. DiFrancesco} and \textit{G. Toscani} [Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 180, 127--149 (2006; Zbl 1096.35015)]. The simplest nontrivial example is an equation whose asymptotic renormalized profile oscillates infinitely many times between (increasingly accurate approaches in the \(L^1\) norm and in the Euclidean Wasserstein distance \(W_2\) to ) the Gaussian and the Barenblatt profiles, passing through a continuous family of transition patterns.