Dynamical structure of some nonlinear degenerate diffusion equations (Q431126)

The authors consider the following initial-boundary value problem: \[ \begin{alignedat}{3} u_t &= \Delta\left(u^m\right)+f(x,u), &\quad &x \in \Omega, &\quad &t > 0,\\ u(x,t) &=0, &\quad &x \in \partial \Omega,&\quad &t>0,\\ u(x,0) & =u_{0}(x), &\quad &x \in \Omega, && \end{alignedat} \] where \(m>1\) and \(f:\overline{\Omega} \times \mathbb{R} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) safisfies \(f(x,0)=0\). In the paper \(\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^n\) is a domain with boundary of class \(C^{2+ \beta}\) for some \(\beta \in (0,1)\). \(\Omega\) is bounded, \(\Omega=\mathbb{R}^n\) or \(\Omega\) is an exterior domain. Under some standard assumptions on \(f\), well-posedness is established for the problem. An additional key assumption on \(f\) guarantees that the stationary solution \(u=0\) is unstable. The authors investigate the difference between the case of degenerate diffusion (\(m>1\)) with respect to the non-degenerate case (\(m=1\)) from the viewpoint of dynamical systems by studying the property of the unstable manifold of zero. The main results obtained are the infinite Haussdorff dimension of the unstable manifold of the stationary solution \(u=0\) and the infinite Hausdorff dimension of connecting orbits (shown to be monotone increasing in time) between stationary solutions. Both results are in sharp contrast with non-degenerate case when \(\Omega\) is bounded.