The balance between diffusion and absorption in semilinear parabolic equations (Q931039)

Consider the positive solutions \(u\) of equations of the form \[ \partial_tu-\Delta u^m+h(t)f(u)=0\quad\hbox{in}\quad Q^T=R^n\times\,]0,T[, \] where \(m\geq 1\) and \(h\) is a positive, increasing, continuous function such that \(h(t)>0\) for all \(t>0\), for certain particular functions \(f\). When \(m=1\) and \(f(u)=u^q\) for some \(q>1\), it is known that any positive solution \(u\) satisfies \(0\leq u(x,t)\leq U_h(t)\) on \(Q^T\), where \[ U_h(t)=\left((q-1)\int_0^t h(s)\;ds\right)^{\frac{-1}{q-1}}. \] Furthermore, the equation admits fundamental solutions \(u_k\) in \(Q^T\) that satisfy \(u_k(\cdot,0)=k\delta_0\). The mapping \(k\mapsto u_k\) is increasing, and the limit \(u_{\infty}=\lim_{k\to\infty}u_k\) is also a solution. Depending on the function \(h\), there may be complete initial blow-up, which means that \(u_{\infty}=U_h\). In the paper under review, it is shown that single-point initial blow-up may also occur, which means that \(u_{\infty}\) is singular at \((0,0)\) and \(\lim_{t\to 0}u_{\infty}(x,t)=0\) for all \(x\neq 0\). The authors go on to show that a similar phenomenon occurs when \(m=1\) and \(f(u)=e^u-1\), and also when \(f(u)=u^q\) with \(q>m>1\).