A remark on the energy blow-up behavior for nonlinear heat equations (Q1575081)

The following nonlinear heat equation: \[ \begin{cases} u_t=\Delta u+|u|^{p-1}u\quad &\text{in }\Omega\times [0, T),\\ u= 0\quad &\text{on }\partial\Omega\times [0,T),\end{cases}\tag{1} \] with \(u(x,0)= u_0(x)\) is concerned, where \(\Omega\) is a \(C^{2,\alpha}\)-convex bounded domain in \(\mathbb{R}^N\), \(u_0\in L^\infty(\Omega)\). The following condition is assumed to hold: \[ 1< p,\quad (N-2)p< N+ 2\quad\text{and}\quad \Biggl(u_0\geq 0\text{ or }p< {3N+8\over 3N- 4}\Biggr).\tag{2} \] In this case the Cauchy problem for (1) can be solved in \(L^{p+1}(\Omega)\). If the maximum existence time \(T>0\) is finite, then \[ \lim_{t\to T} \|u(t)\|_{L^{p+1}(\Omega)}= \lim_{t\to T} \|u(t)\|_{L^\infty(\Omega)}= \lim_{t\to T} \|u(t)\|_{H^1_0(\Omega)}= +\infty. \] In this paper, the behaviour of Lyapunov functional associated with equation (1) \[ E(u)= {1\over 2} \int_\Omega|\nabla u|^2 dx- {1\over p+1} \int_\Omega|u|^{p+ 1} dx \] is studied. Under assumption (2) the limit of energy at blow up \(\lim_{t\to T} E(u(t))= -\infty\) is shown. In the proof the Liouville Theorem and ideas of Y. Giga are used. The paper follows with a study of a functional \(J\) associated with \(E\) and defined for all \(v\in\Sigma\), the unit sphere of \(H^1_0(\Omega)\) by \(J(v)= \sup_{\lambda> 0} E(\lambda v)\). The following result is claimed: Theorem. The Rayleigh quotient for the solution, \(\|u(t)\|_{H^1_0}/\|u(t)\|_{L^{p+1}}\), goes to \(+\infty\) as \(t\to T\) and so does \[ J\Biggl({u(t)\over\|u(t)\|_{H^1_0(\Omega)}}\Biggr)= \sup_{\lambda> 0} E(\lambda u(t))= {p-1\over 2(p+1)} \Biggl({\|u(t)\|_{H^1_0}\over\|u(t)\|_{L^{p+1}}}\Biggr)^{2(p+ 1)/(p- 1)}. \] This is equivalent to the following: \(u(t)/\|u(t)\|_{H^1_0(\Omega)}\) goes to \(0\) as \(t\to T\), weakly in \(H^1_0(\Omega)\).