Symmetrization for linear and nonlinear fractional parabolic equations of porous medium type (Q2445877)

Symmetrization techniques were developed for classical PDEs of elliptic and parabolic types with the aim to obtain a priori estimates. By using the notion of concentrations comparison (introduced in the article [\textit{C. Bandle}, J. Anal. Math. 30, 98--112 (1976; Zbl 0331.35036)]) the authors extend symmetrization results on solutions of the linear fractional parabolic equation \(\partial _t u+ (-\triangle)^{\frac{\sigma}{2}}u=f\), the relevant elliptic equation \(hv+(-\triangle)^{\frac{\sigma}{2}}v=f\) with a positive function \(h\), and also on their nonlinear variants \(\partial _t u+(-\triangle)^{\frac{\sigma}{2}}A(u)=f, \;B(v)+(-\triangle)^{\frac{\sigma}{2}}v=f\) with a concave function \(A\) nondecreasing on the semiaxis and convex nonlinearity \(B(v),\; B(0)=0\). In opposite to classical parabolic and elliptic equations with convex and concave \(A\) and \(B\) on \(\mathbb{R}_+\) it is shown that symmetrization generally is impossible. Among the open problems is the concentrations comparison result for the fractional porous medium equation \(\partial _t u+ (-\triangle)^{\frac{\sigma}{2}}u^m=0, m>1.\)