Quenching problem of a reaction-diffusion equation with time delay (Q1570966)

The paper investigates the quenching problem for a parabolic equation with time delay and the spatial domain being a sphere in \(\mathbb{R}^n\): \[ u_t- D\Biggl(u_{rr}+ {n-1\over r} u_r\Biggr)= f(u(t- \tau,t)),\quad 0< t,\quad 0< r< R, \] \[ u_r(t, 0)= 0,\quad u(t,R)= 0,\quad 0<t, \] \[ u(t,r)= \eta(t, r),\quad -\tau\leq t\leq 0,\quad 0< r< R, \] where \(D\) and \(\tau\) are positive constants, \(f(u)\in C^1[0, c^*)\) for some \(c^*\) where \(f\) is singular, and \(\eta(t,r)\) is a nonnegative Hölder continuous function in \([-\tau,0]\times (0,R)\) which satisfies the boundary condition at \(t=0\). Let \(R^*\) be the supremum of all \(R\) such that the corresponding steady-state problem has a positive solution. It is shown that under certain assumptions on \(f\), the solution \(u(t,r)\) quenches if \(R> R^*\), and a unique global solution \(u(t,r)\) exists and converges to a positive solution of the steady-state problem (for a certain class of initial functions) if \(R< R^*\). The results are independent of the time delay \(\tau\).