The Petrovskiĭ criterion and barriers for degenerate and singular \(p\)-parabolic equations (Q2402826)

The counterpart of Petrovski's criterion for the regularity of the latest boundary point is generalized from the heat equation to the evolutionary \(p\)-Laplace equation \[ {\partial u\over\partial t}=\nabla\cdot(|\nabla u|^{p-2}\nabla u),\qquad u= u(x_1,\dots, x_n,t),\tag{1} \] in the domain \[ \Omega= \{(x,t)\mid|x|<\zeta(t),\;T_0<t<0\}. \] Here \(\zeta(t)\) is a positive continuous function. In the case \(p>2\) the following result is obtained: {\parindent=6mm \begin{itemize}\item[{\(\bullet\)}] \(\lim_{t\to 0-} (-t)^{-1/p}\zeta(t)= 0\Rightarrow (0,0)\) is regular, \item[{\(\bullet\)}] \(\liminf_{t\to 0-} (-t)^{-1/p}\zeta(t)> 0\Rightarrow (0,0)\) is irregular. \end{itemize}} In the case \(1<p<2\) the authors construct a domain for which the origin is an irregular boundary point. They exhibit one classical barrier function at the origin. This indicates that a whole family of barriers is needed to guarantee regularity. The proofs are based on elaborate calculations. The trivial observation that the constant \(k\) can be scaled away from the equation \[ {\partial u\over\partial t}=k\nabla\cdot(|\nabla u|^{p-2}\nabla u)\tag{2} \] when \(p\neq 2\) is used. (Thus equations (1) and (2) are similar if \(p\neq 2\).)