Regularity of the solution of the free boundary problem for the equation \(v_t=(v^m)_{xx}\) (Q2704036)

This paper studies the smoothness properties (locally in time) of the solution of the free boundary value problem for the nonlinear degenerate parabolic equation \(v_t(x,t)=(v^m(x,t))_{xx}\), with Cauchy condition \(v(x,0)=v_0(x)\), where \(v_0(x)\) is a given function, \(m>0\), \(x\) in \(\mathbb{R}\) and \(0<t<T\). This is a nonlinear porous media equation, which degenerates on the set \({v(x,t)=0}\), for \(m>1\), since a perturbation is known to propagate at a finite time. Thus, free boundaries arise between the domains \({v(x,t)>0}\) and \({v(x,t)=0}\), which are described by the functions \(x=((t)=\sup_x{v(x,t)>0}\) and \(x=((t)=\inf_x{v(x,t)>0}\). The condition \(v=0\) is fulfilled on the unknown free boundary, and the velocity of it is governed by the Darcy law. The method of the authors allows to regard the Cauchy problem as a initial boundary value problem for the porous media equation in an unknown domain (((t), ((t)). If the initial function \(v_0(x)\) satisfies some compatibility, monotonicity and smoothness conditions, than the free boundaries are smooth curves for all sufficiently small \(T\). Moreover, the smoothness of the free boundary improves if so does the smoothness of the initial function.