Parabolic problems with nonlinear boundary conditions and critical nonlinearities (Q1303848)

The authors study the nonlinear parabolic problem \[ \begin{gathered} \frac {\partial u}{\partial t} =\Delta u + f(u) \text{ in } \Omega\times(0,T), \\ \frac {\partial u}{\partial \nu} = g(u) \text{ on } \partial\Omega\times(0,T), \\ u(\cdot,0) = u_0 \text{ in } \Omega, \end{gathered} \] where \(\Omega \subset \mathbb R^N\) has unit outer normal \(\nu\), and \(u\) depends on \(x\) and \(t\). Their main theorem is that if there are constants \(q \in (1,\infty)\) and \(C\) such that \[ \begin{aligned} |f(u)-f(v)|&\leq C|u-v|(|u|^{2q/N}+|v|^{2q/N} +1),\\ |g(u)-g(v)|&\leq C|u-v|(|u|^{q/N}+|v|^{q/N} +1) \end{aligned} \tag{*} \] (if \(N \geq 2\)), and if \(u_0 \in L^q(\Omega)\), then this problem has a unique solution. (If \(N=1\), the exponents in the inequality for \(g\) must be less than \(q\).) They also show that if \(u_0 \in W^{1,q}\) with \(q \in(1,\infty)\), then the condition (*) can be relaxed. These results include all known results on existence for problems with critical growth. The method of proof relies on various interpolation theorems for scales of Banach spaces.