On partial regularity of the borderline solution of semilinear parabolic problems (Q2641922)

The paper considers an equation sometimes referred to as ``the semilinear heat equation'', that is \(u_t=\Delta u+| u| ^{p-1}u\) on some domain \(\Omega\subseteq \mathbb R^n\), \(n\geq3\), with \(u=0\) on the boundary. Given initial data in \(L^\infty\), the problem admits a classical solution which sometimes blows up (in the sense that it becomes unbounded in finite time) and sometimes doesn't. The latter is known to hold for sufficiently small initial data, while the former happens in the case of large data. Therefore it makes sense to study initial data of the form \(\lambda\varphi\) with \(\varphi\in L^\infty\) fixed and a parameter \(\lambda>0\). There must be a borderline value \(\lambda^*\) of the parameter where the behaviour of the solution switches from being bounded to blowing up in finite time. The pointwise limit of the solutions for \(\lambda\nearrow\lambda^*\) is called the ``borderline solution''. It coincides with the solution for the initial values \(\lambda^*\varphi\) on its maximal existence interval. Two theorems about positive borderline solutions on convex domains \(\Omega\) are proven. If \(p>1+{4\over n}\), then they are continuous outside a closed singular set of vanishing \((n-{4\over p-1})\)-dimensional Hausdorff measure. If \(p>1+{4\over n-2}\), then they do blow up in finite time and later become uniformly bounded to decay to zero as \(t\to\infty\).