Asymptotic complexity in filtration equations (Q2463772)

This paper concerns the asymptotic behavior as \(t\to \infty\) of finite mass nonnegative solutions of the Cauchy problems for nonlinear diffusion equations of the form \(u_t= \Delta \Phi(u)\), where \(\Phi\) is a strictly increasing and continuous function with \(\Phi(0)=0\) and smooth for \(u > 0\). Based on the results for the heat equation, the porous medium equation and their perturbations, one might conjecture that the nonlinear diffusion equations of the form \(u_t= \Delta \Phi(u)\) give always rise to simple asymptotic patterns, even to a universal profile. The purpose of this paper is to disprove this conjecture and to show that choosing the behavior of the nonlinearity \(\Phi\) near zero in a convenient way yields a quite complicated family of renormalized asymptotic patterns for the same equation and solution, even a chaotic situation. Here the solutions are renormalized at each time with respect to their own second moment as proposed in \textit{G. Toscani} [J. Evol. Equ. 5, 185--203 (2005; Zbl 1082.35091)] and \textit{J. A. Carrillo, M. DiFrancesco} and \textit{G. Toscani} [Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 180, 127--149 (2006; Zbl 1096.35015)]. The simplest nontrivial example is an equation whose asymptotic renormalized profile oscillates infinitely many times between (increasingly accurate approaches in the \(L^1\) norm and in the Euclidean Wasserstein distance \(W_2\) to ) the Gaussian and the Barenblatt profiles, passing through a continuous family of transition patterns.