Kinetic approach to long time behavior of linearized fast diffusion equations (Q2454865)

The authors address the study of rate of convergence to equilibrium for solutions of the fast diffusion equation. In the linear case corresponding to the heat equation a more accurate asymptotic description has been obtained fixing a certain number of moments of the initial data [\textit{J. Duoandikoetxea, E. Zuazua}, C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris, Sér. I 315, No. 6, 693--698 (1992; Zbl 0755.45019)]. Inspired by this observation the authors show that the rate of convergence towards the self-similar solution of certain linearized versions of the fast diffusion equation can be related to the number of moments of the initial datum that are equal to the moments of the self-similar solution at a fixed time. As a consequence, they find an improved rate of convergence to self-similarity in terms of a Fourier based distance between two solutions given by \[ d_s (f,g)=\sup_{\xi\in \mathbb{R}^N}\frac{| \widehat{f} (\xi)-\widehat{g} (\xi) | }{| \xi| ^s} \] for any pair of probability measures with bounded \(s\)-moment, \(\widehat{f}\) denoting the Fourier transform of the density \(f (x)\). The results are based on the asymptotic equivalence of a collisional kinetic model of Boltzmann type with a linear Fokker-Planck equation with nonconstant coefficients, and make use of methods first applied to the reckoning of the rate of convergence towards equilibrium for the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation for Maxwell molecules.