Weak solutions of a strongly coupled degenerate parabolic system (Q1575814)

In the article under review, the authors study a strongly coupled degenerate parabolic system of the form: \[ \rho_t= \text{div}(\varphi_1(T)\rho^{\alpha_1}\nabla\rho)\quad \text{in } \Omega\times (0,\infty), \] \[ (\rho T)_t= \text{div}(\varphi_2(T)\rho^{\alpha_2 + 1}\nabla T) + \text{div}(T\varphi_1(T)\rho^{\alpha_1}\nabla\rho) \quad\text{in } \Omega\times (0,\infty), \] where \(\Omega\) is a bounded domain of \(\mathbb R^n\), \(\alpha_1 >0\), \(\alpha_2 > -1\) are real constants and \(\varphi_i\) are smooth functions satisfying \(\varphi_i\geq\sigma > 0\). This system arises in modelling of the evolution of the density \(\rho(x,t)\) and the ionic temperature \(T(x,t)\) of a plasma slowly diffusing across a strong magnetic field. The main result of the article is the existence of nonnegative bounded weak solutions of both the Cauchy problem and an initial-boundary value problem for the system in any space dimensions.