Well-posedness theory for degenerate parabolic equations on Riemannian manifolds (Q2013915)

The paper under review deals with the Cauchy problem for degenerate parabolic equations of the form \[ \begin{cases} \partial_tu+\operatorname{div} f_{\mathbf{x}}(u)= \operatorname{div}\big(\operatorname{div}(A_{\mathbf{x}(u)})\big),\quad \mathbf{x}\in M,\;t\geq0,\\ u|_{t=0}=u_0(\mathbf{x})\in L^\infty(M) \end{cases} \] over a smooth (Hausdorff) and compact \(d\)-dimensional Riemannian manifold \((M,g).\) Here \(\mathbf{x}\mapsto f_{\mathbf{x}}(u)\) is a \(C^1\)-vector field for each \(u\in\mathbb{R}\) and \(\mathbf{x}\mapsto A_{\mathbf{x}}(u)\) is \((1,1)\)-tensor field on \(M\) such that \(u\mapsto \langle A_{\mathbf{x}}(u)\xi,\xi\rangle,\) \(\xi\in T_{\mathbf{x}}M,\) is nondecreasing with respect to \(u.\) Thus, the equation considered is degenerate in the sense that \(\partial_\xi A_{\mathbf{x}}\) can be equal to zero in some direction for some \(\mathbf{x}\in M.\) Since the notion of divergence operator in the equation depends on the Riemannian metric \(g,\) a revision of the standard entropy admissibility concept is necessary. The authors derive it under the additional geometry compatibility condition \[ \operatorname{div} f_{\mathbf{x}}(z)= \operatorname{div}\big(\operatorname{div}(A_{\mathbf{x}}(z))\big)\quad \forall z\in\mathbb{R}. \] As corollary, a kinetic formulation of the equation on the manifold is introduced and well-posedness of the corresponding Cauchy problem is obtained.