A refined convergence result in homogenization of second order parabolic systems (Q1733230)

In the paper under review, the authors investigate the convergence rate in periodic homogenization of second order parabolic systems. Let $\Omega$ be a bounded domain in $\mathbb{R}^d$ and $T>0$. The authors consider the homogenization of the parabolic system \[ \begin{cases} \partial_t u_\epsilon+\mathcal{L}_\epsilon u_\epsilon =f & \text{in } \Omega \times (0,T),\\ u_\epsilon=0 & \text{on } \partial \Omega \times (0,T),\\ u_\epsilon=h & \text{on } \Omega \times \{t=0\}, \end{cases} \] where \[ \mathcal{L}_\epsilon=-\partial_\alpha (A_{ij}^{\alpha\beta}(x/\epsilon,t/\epsilon^2)\partial_\beta), \qquad 1\leq i,j\leq n,1\leq \alpha,\beta\leq d,\] where the coefficient matrix $A(y,s)=(A_{ij}^{\alpha\beta}(y,s))$ is real, bounded, measurable, $1$-periodic in $(y,s)$ and \[\mu |\xi|^2\leq A^{\alpha \beta}(y,s)\xi_\alpha \xi_\beta,\qquad |A(y,s)|\leq 1/\mu \quad \text{for a.e. } (y,s)\in \mathbb{R}^{d+1}. \] The unique solution $u^\epsilon$ of the problem above is well known to converge to the unique solution $u_0$ of the following parabolic equation with constant coefficients \[ \begin{cases} \partial_t u_0+\mathcal{L}_0 u_0 =f & \text{in } \Omega \times (0,T),\\ u_0=0 & \text{on } \partial \Omega \times (0,T),\\ u_0=h & \text{on } \Omega \times \{t=0\}, \end{cases} \] where $\mathcal{L}_0$ is the homogenized operator. The authors show the optimal $O(\epsilon)$ convergence rate of $u_\epsilon$ to $u_0$ in $L^2(0,T;L^{q_0}(\Omega))$, with $q_0=2d/(d-1)$, $d\geq 2$.