Uniqueness and Widder's theorem for the heat equation on Riemannian manifolds (Q2779201)

The uniqueness theorem for solutions of the heat equation on the one-dimensional Euclidean space was shown by Tikhonov in 1935 under the growth conditions NEWLINE\[NEWLINE|u(x,t)|\leq \exp\{C(1+|x|^2)\},NEWLINE\]NEWLINE \(C\) being a constant. Later, uniqueness problems for the heat equation on complete Riemannian manifolds \(M\) were discussed under growth conditions on the geometry of manifolds instead of those on solutions. For instance, Li and Karp showed a uniqueness result for bounded solutions under the condition NEWLINE\[NEWLINEV_p(R)\leq \exp\{C(1+ R^2)\},NEWLINE\]NEWLINE where \(V_p(R)\) is the volume of the geodesic ball of radius \(R\) centered at a point \(p\). The similarity of the above growth conditions suggests there is a relation between them.NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEThe present paper firstly proves a uniqueness result under a condition on the growth of solutions combined with the geometry of the manifold. From this result the author establishes the maximum principle and Widder's theorem on Riemannian manifolds. Finally, an application to the uniqueness of the Eells-Sampson equation is discussed.NEWLINENEWLINEFor the entire collection see [Zbl 0981.00018].