Approximation theorems for parabolic equations and movement of local hot spots (Q2631563)

The authors prove global approximation theorems for the general linear parabolic equation $Lu(x,t)=0$, $x\in\mathbb{R}^n,\,\,t>0$, where $n\ge 2$, \[ Lu:=-\displaystyle\frac{\partial u}{\partial t}+\displaystyle\sum_{i,j=1}^n a_{ij}(x,t)\displaystyle\frac{\partial^2 u}{\partial x_i\partial x_j}+\displaystyle\sum_{i=1}^n b_i(x,t)\displaystyle\frac{\partial u}{\partial x_i}+c(x,t)u, \] and the coefficients $a_{ij}$ satisfy a uniform parabolic condition. For the heat equation, they show that the global solution which approximates the local solution can be assumed to decay both at spatial infinity and as $t\to \infty$. Some applications of the obtained results to the movement of hot spots and isothermic hypersurfaces for parabolic equations and for the heat equation on the flat torus $\mathbb{T}^n$ are also presented.