Semilinear nonautonomous parabolic equations with unbounded coefficients in the linear part (Q495246)

Semilinear nonautonomous initial value problems \[ \begin{alignedat}{2} \partial_tu(t,x)&=(\mathcal{A}(t)u)(t,x)+\psi(t,u(t,x)), & \qquad & t>s, \;x\in\mathbb{R}^d,\cr u(s,x)&=f(x), & \qquad & x\in\mathbb{R}^d, \end{alignedat} \] are considered, where \[ \mathcal{A}(t)=\sum_{i,j=1}^dq_{ij}(t,x)\partial^2_{x_ix_j}+ \sum_{i=1}^db_{i}(t,x)\partial_{x_i}, \] is a time dependent, linear, uniformly elliptic operator with coefficients that are allowed to be unbounded. Assuming that \(q_{ij}\) and \(b_i\) are Hölder continuous and that a Lyapunov function exists, the linear part generates a Markov evolution operator \(G(t,s)\) in \(C_b(\mathbb{R}^d).\) For Lipschitz nonlinearities \(\psi\), the existence and uniqueness of local mild solutions \(u\) of the semilinear problem, i.e., \[ u(t,\cdot)=G(t,s)f+\int_s^tG(t,r)\psi(r,u(r,\cdot)),\qquad t\in[s,\tau], \] is established in \(C_b([s,\tau]\times\mathbb{R}^d)\) and \(L^p((s,\tau)\times \mathbb{R}^d,\nu),\) where \(\nu\) is a Borel measure determined by a tight evolution system of measures \(\{\mu_t\}\) associated to \(G(t,s).\) The results are based on previous works addressing the corresponding linear homogeneous problem ([\textit{L. Angiuli} et al., Commun. Partial Differ. Equations 38, No. 12, 2049--2080 (2013; Zbl 1282.35052)], [\textit{M. Kunze} et al., Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 362, No. 1, 169--198 (2010; Zbl 1184.35150)]). Moreover, assuming that \(\psi(t,0)=0\) and that \(\psi\) is dissipative, \[ \xi\psi(t,\xi)\leq \psi_0\xi^2, \qquad t\in\mathbb{R},\;\xi\in\mathbb{R}^d, \] for some \(\psi_0\in\mathbb{R}\), it is shown that solutions in \(C_b(\mathbb{R}^d)\) exist globally and satisfy \[ | u(t,x) | \leq e^{\psi_0(t-s)}\|f\|_\infty,\qquad t>s,\;x\in\mathbb{R}^d,\;f\in C_b(\mathbb{R}^d). \] Under additional regularity and growth assumptions on the coefficient functions of \(\mathcal{A}(t)\), a similar result is obtained for solutions in \(L^p(\mathbb{R}^d,\nu)\), i.e., \[ \|u(t,\cdot)\|_{L^p(\mathbb{R}^d,\mu_t)}\leq e^{\psi_0(t-s)}\|f\|_{L^p(\mathbb{R}^d,\mu_s)},\qquad t>s,\;f\in L^p(\mathbb{R}^d,\mu_s). \]