ASYMPTOTIC BEHAVIOUR AND BLOW-UP FOR A NONLINEAR DIFFUSION PROBLEM WITH A NON-LOCAL SOURCE TERM (Q4650690)

The behaviour of solutions of initial-boundary-value problems to the non-local parabolic equation \[ u_t- \Delta(K(u))= {\lambda f(u)\over (\int_\Omega f(u)\,dx)^p},\quad x\in\Omega,\quad t> 0\tag{1} \] is studied. Here \(\Omega\) is a smooth bounded subset of \(\mathbb{R}^N\), \(N= 1\) or \(2\), \(\lambda\) and \(p\) are positive parameters, \(K(u)\) is imposed to be a positive function with \(K\in C^2(\mathbb{R}_+)\), \(f(u)\) is an increasing function. The key for the study of the asymptotic behaviour of the solutions to equation (1) is the study of the associated steady-state equation \[ -\Delta(K(w))= {\lambda f(w)\over (\int_\Omega f(w)\,dx)^p},\quad x\in \Omega.\tag{2} \] The main goal, in this paper, is to show the interplay of \(p\), the exponent of the non-local term, the non-local parameter \(\lambda\) and the spatial dimension \(N\), with regard to solutions to equation (2) and the global existence or blowup of solutions to equation (1). The stability of solutions of equation (2) is studied by constructing a Lyapunov functional which also helps to study the global existence and blow-up of solutions to the time-dependent problem. Such a functional can be constructed however only if \(f(s)= e^{K(s)}\).