Nonlinear characterizations of stochastic completeness (Q2186679)

The authors prove that the conservation of probability for the free heat semigroup on a Riemannian manifold \(M\) (namely stochastic completeness), hence a linear property, is surprisingly equivalent to uniqueness of positive, bounded solutions to nonlinear evolution equations of fast diffusion type on \(M\) of the form \(u_t = \Delta \phi (u),\) where \(\phi\) is an arbitrary concave, increasing, positive function, regular outside the origin and with \(\phi(0) = 0\). Either property is also equivalent to nonexistence of nonnegative, nontrivial, bounded solutions to the elliptic equation \( \Delta W = \phi^{-1}(W)\), with \(\phi\) as above. As a consequence, for the first to my knowledge, explicit criteria for uniqueness or nonuniqueness of bounded solutions to fast diffusion-type equations on manifolds are given.