The blow-up time for higher order semilinear parabolic equations with small leading coefficients (Q1122704)

This paper deals with the problem \[ u_ t+\epsilon^ 4\Delta^ 2u=f(u)\quad in\quad \Omega \times (0,T),\quad u(x,0)=\phi (x),\quad u=\partial u/\partial \nu =0\quad on\quad \partial \Omega \times (0,T), \] where \(0\leq \phi \in C^ 1({\bar \Omega})\) satisfies \(\phi =(\partial /\partial \nu)\phi =0\) on \(\partial \Omega\) and \(0\leq f\in C^ 1(R^ 1)\) is such that \(\liminf f(u)/u^ p\geq c>0,\) \(p>1\), as \(u\to \infty.\) If a solution \(u=u_{\epsilon}\) exists for \(T<T_{\epsilon}\) but not for \(T<T_{\epsilon}+\delta\), and \(\delta >0\), then by definition \(T_{\epsilon}\) is the blow up time for \(u_{\epsilon}.\) If u is the solution of \(u_ t=f(u)\), \(t>0\), \(u(x,0)=\phi (x)\) and T(x) is the blow up time of \(t\mapsto u(x,t)\), set \(T_ 0=T(x_ 0)\) for \(x_ 0\) such that \(\phi (x_ 0)=\max_{\Omega}\phi,\) \(x_ 0\in \Omega\). Assuming that \(T_ 0<\infty\), the authors show that \(T_{\epsilon}\to T_ 0\) if \(\epsilon\) \(\to 0\) (Sections 2, 4). Furthermore \(u_{\epsilon}\to u_ 0\) uniformly on compact subsets of \({\bar \Omega}\times [0,T_ 0)\) and convergence of higher order derivatives of \(u_{\epsilon}\) is also established (Section 3). In Sections 5, 6 the problem above is taken up for the equation \[ u_ t+\epsilon^ 4\Delta^ 2u-\Delta u=f(u), \] and the blow up time of its solution \(u_{\epsilon}\), \(T_{\epsilon}\), compared to the blow up time \(T_ 0\) corresponding to \(u_ t-\Delta u=f(u).\) The authors show again that \(T_{\epsilon}\to T_ 0\); additional hypotheses are imposed on f, \(\phi\). The authors point out that the methods of proofs can be extended to semilinear equations of any order and to parabolic systems. References include 9 items.