Hölder continuity of nonnegative solutions to the porous medium equation (Q1892158)

The author proves local Hölder continuity of nonnegative solutions of the porous media equation \(u_t = \Delta u^m\), where \((x,t) \in \mathbb{R}^N \times (0,T)\), \(N \geq 1\), \(m > 1\) and the initial datum \(u_0 (x) \in L^1_{\text{loc}} (\mathbb{R}^N)\) satisfies the optimal growth condition identified by Bénilan, Crandall and Pierre. The resulting Hölder norm turns out to depend on \(N,m\), the considered compact set \(K\) and on \(u_0\) (via an upper bound on \(|u_0 |_1 : = \sup_{R \geq 1} R^{- (N2/(m - 1))} \int_{B_R} |u_0 (x) |dx\), and upon how ``fast'' \(c(N,m) |u_0 |_r^{1 - m} (|u_0 |_r\) defined as above \(|u_0 |_1\), mutatis mutandis) converges to its limit \(= : T(u_0)\) (maximal time for which existence of the solution is insured), thus improving previous results by Caffarelli and Friedman, which required \(u_0 \in L^2 (\mathbb{R}^N) \cap L^\infty (\mathbb{R}^N)\) and Di Benedetto and Friedman, where the Hölder exponent depends also on local bounds of \(u\) (however their result holds for more general nonlinearities). The proof is achieved by a modification of Caffarelli and Friedman's original proof and a suitable approximation argument. The result carries over to solutions of initial value problems with measures as data (within the optimal growth class) and due to Dahlberg and Kenig's result upon continuity of any local distributional solution also to this fairly general class.