Gaussian bounds for degenerate parabolic equations (Q935056)

The degenerate parabolic equation \(\text{div}\;A\nabla u=w(\partial u/\partial t)\) is studied. Here \(A\) is a real-symmetric matrix satisfying the degenerate ellipticity condition \(\lambda w(x)| \psi | ^2\leq Re \langle A\psi ,\psi \rangle \), \(| \langle A\psi , \eta \rangle | \leq \Lambda w(x) | \psi | | \eta | \) for some \(\lambda \), \(\Lambda \), \(0<\lambda \leq \Lambda <\infty \), and all \(\psi , \eta \in C^n\). The weight \(w\) is a non-negative locally integrable function which is quasi-conformal or in the Muckenhoupt class \(A_2\). The Harnack inequality for a non-negative solution of the equation \(div\;A\nabla u=w(\partial u/\partial t)\) is proved. Then it is shown that there is a heat kernel \(W_t(x,y)\) such that \(u(x)=\int W_t(x,y)f(y)dy \) is a solution of the boundary value problem \(div\;A\nabla u=w^{-1}(\partial u/\partial t)\), \(u(x,0)=f(x)\). Moreover, the Gaussian bound and Hölder continuity estimates are established for \(W_t(x,y)\).