Positive solutions of quasilinear parabolic systems with Dirichlet boundary condition (Q2269630)

The authors consider a coupled system of arbitrary number of quasilinear parabolic equations in a bounded domain with Dirichlet boundary condition, where the domain is assumed to have the outside sphere property without the usual smoothness condition. The system of equations under consideration is given by \[ \begin{cases} \frac{\partial u_i}{\partial t}-a_i\nabla (D_i(u_i)\nabla u_i)+\mathbf{b}_i\cdot (D_i(u_i)\nabla u_i)=f_i(t,x,\mathbf{u}) &(t>0,x\in \Omega ),\\ u_i(t,x)=g_i(t,x) &(t>0,x\in \partial \Omega ),\\ u_i(0,x)=\psi _i(x) &(x\in \Omega ),\;i=1,\dots,N, \end{cases}\tag{1} \] where \(\mathbf{u=}(u_1,\dots,u_N)\), \(\Omega \) is a bounded domain in \(\mathbb{R}^N\) with boundary \(\partial \Omega \), and for each \(i=1,\dots,N,a_i\equiv a_i(t,x),\mathbf{b}_i\equiv \mathbf{b} _i(t,x)=(b_i^{(1)},\dots,b_i^{(n)}),\) \(D_i(u_i),f_i(t,x,\mathbf{u})\) and \(g_i(t,x,\mathbf{u})\) are prescribed functions satisfying some specific conditions. The authors consider also the case \(a_i=b_i^{(l)}\,(l=1,\dots,N)\) for some \(i\) and without the corresponding boundary condition, in which case (1) is reduced to a coupled system of quasilinear parabolic and ordinary differential equations of the form \[ \begin{cases} \frac{\partial u_i}{\partial t}-a_i\nabla (D_i(u_i)\nabla u_i)+\mathbf{b}_i\cdot (D_i(u_i)\nabla u_i)=f_i(t,x,\mathbf{u}) &(i=1,\dots,n_0),\\ \frac{\partial u_i}{\partial t}=f_i(t,x,\mathbf{u}) &(i=n_0+1,\dots,N),\\ u_i(t,x)=g_i(t,x) &(i=1,\dots,n_0),\\ u_i(0,x)=\psi _i(x) &(x\in \Omega )\;(i=1,\dots,N).\end{cases}\tag{2} \] In addition to the above parabolic system the authors study the corresponding quasilinear elliptic (or steady-state) system \[ \begin{cases} -a_i\nabla (D_i(u_i)\nabla u_i)+\mathbf{b}_i\cdot (D_i(u_i)\nabla u_i)=f_i(x,\mathbf{u}) &(x\in \Omega ),\\ u_i(0,x)=\psi _i(x) &(x\in \Omega ),\;i=1,\dots,N, \end{cases}\tag{3} \] where \(a_i\equiv a_i(x),\mathbf{b}_i\equiv \mathbf{b}_i(x)\) are independent of \(t\). The aim of the paper is to show {\parindent=4mm \begin{itemize}\item[--] the existence and the uniqueness of a global classical solution of (1) and (2), \item[--] the existence of a positive maximal and minimal solutions of (3) including the uniqueness of the positive solution \item[--] the asymptotic behavior of the time-depending solution of (1) in relation to the positive solution of (3) as \( t\rightarrow \infty \). \end{itemize}} The asymptotic behavior of the time-depending solution of (1) leads to a global attraction property of the maximal and minimal solutions as well as the asymptotic stability of a positive steady-state solution. The approach is by the method of upper and lower solutions, its associated monotone interactions and various comparison principles.