Trace formulae of potentials for degenerate parabolic equations. (Q2200746)

The layer potential method for parabolic equations has been intensively applied to solve initial and initial-boundary value problems of parabolic partial differential equations in the last decades. The goal of the present paper is to construct the potential theory for multi-dimensional degenerate parabolic equations and to analyse its consequences. To achieve this aim, first by using the Fourier transform, the authors find the fundamental solution in an explicit form. Then, they develop ``degenerate'' potential theory, which is based on a use of the explicit representation of the fundamental solution for analyzing, in this setting, a complete parallel of the classical heat potential and regularity theory. This approach is closely related to the potential theory of hypoelliptic differential equations.