The support shrinking properties for solutions of quasilinear parabolic equations with strong absorption terms (Q1903535)

The authors study the shrinking properties of supports of solutions to quasilinear parabolic equations of the type \({\partial\over \partial t}(|u|^{a- 1} u)= \text{div } \vec A(x, t, u, \nabla u)- B(x, t, u)+ f(x, t)\) in \(G \times (0, T)\), \(u(x, 0)= u_0(x)\) in \(G\), where \(G\) is a smooth domain, \(T> 0\), \(a> 0\) and \(\vec A\) and \(B\) satisfy some structural assumptions; in particular, the nonlinear heat equation with strong absorption is allowed as an example. In some sense, results are relatively independent of boundary conditions. Interesting results are obtained concerning either shrinking or even strict shrinking of supports (varying with time \(t\)) of solutions confronted with the support of the initial datum \(u_0\). Existence of dead cores after a ``critical'' time \(T^*\) is also proved. The proofs are based on some local energy estimates involving sophisticated differential inequalities of first order which improve work in the literature; they involve integration by parts using cutting functions. Boundary conditions imply estimates on the total energy.