Quantized slow blow-up dynamics for the corotational energy-critical harmonic heat flow (Q2340101)

Continuing previous studies of different corotational settings for nonlinear dispersive and parabolic equations, and in particular [Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 66, No. 3, 414--480 (2013; Zbl 1270.35136)], the authors finally succeed in describing the exact blow-up rates for the rotationally symmetric harmonic map heat flow \({\mathbb R}^2\to S^2\). The target is also allowed to be a different surface of revolution and the heat flow equation by symmetry reduces to \[ \partial_t u-\partial_r^2u-\frac{\partial_r u}{r}+\frac{f(u)}{r^2}=0 \] for a suitable class of functions \(f\). It has been known from basic considerations that singularities can only form ``slowly'', i.e., as singularities of second kind with slower rates than the parabolically self-similar one. In the paper mentioned above, it was shown that the generic blow-up rate at the singular time \(T\) is \(u(t,x)\sim Q\left(\frac{r}{\lambda(t)}\right)\), where here \(\lambda(t)\sim\frac{T-t}{ |\log(T-t)|^2}\) and \(Q\) is the least-energy nontrivial harmonic map with the required symmetry. On the other hand, in [\textit{J. B. van den Berg} et al., SIAM J. Appl. Math. 63, No. 5, 1682--1717 (2003; Zbl 1037.35023)], it was shown by formal matching of asymptotics that one should also expect blow-ups where \(\lambda(t)\sim\frac{(T-t)^L}{ |\log(T-t)|^{2L/(2L-1)}}\) for any \(L\in{\mathbb N}\). Note that the ``stable'' blow-ups mentioned above correspond to \(L=1\). This prediction is finally verified in the current paper. For every \(L\in {\mathbb N}\), there is some initial data that leads to blow-up with the rate predicted above. It can be chosen arbitrarily close to the mapping \(Q\) and can be taken from (roughly) a manifold of codimension \(L-1\) in the set of admissible data. The proof is not based on matched asymptotics; instead, the blow-up speed is found to be governed by an explicit and universal system of ordinary differential equations, which still results in a very technical proof, but the methods are flexible and have been also applied to other problems by the authors.