Semilinear parabolic equations involving critical Sobolev exponent: Local and asymptotic behavior of solutions (Q5933792)

The blow up and asymptotic behavior of solutions are examined for the following parabolic equation with nonlinear term of critical growth. \[ \begin{cases} u_t-\Delta u=|u|^{p^*- 2}u,\;&(t,x)\in (0,T)\times \Omega,\\u|_{\partial\Omega}= 0,\;t\in [0,T],\;& u(0,t)= u_0(x),\;x\in\Omega,\end{cases}\tag{P} \] where \(\Omega\) is a bounded domain in \(\mathbb{R}^N\) with smooth boundary and \(p^*\) is the critical Sobolev exponent given by \(p^*={2N\over N-2}\). The associated enery functional is given by \[ J(u)= |\nabla u|^2_{L^2}/2-|u|^{p^*}_{L^{p^*}}/p^*. \] By the potential well method, it is well known that the continuous embedding \(H^1_0(\Omega)\subset L^{p^*}(\Omega)\) assures that \(d= \inf\{\sup_{\lambda\geq 0} J(\lambda u); u\in H^1_0(\Omega)\setminus\{0\}\}> 0\) and the stable set \(W\) and the blow-up set \(V\) are defined by \(W= \{u\in H^1_0(\Omega); J(u)< d, I(u)< 0\}\), \(V= \{u\in H^1_0(\Omega); J(u)< d, I(u)> 0\}\), where \(I(u)= |\Delta u|^2_{L^2}-|u|^{p^*}_{L^{p^*}}\). It is known that for any \(u_0\in H^1_0(\Omega)\), (P) admits a unique \(H^1\)-solution \(u\) in \(C([0, T_m); H^1_0(\Omega))\cap C((0, T_m); L^\infty(\Omega))\). Here \(T_m\) denotes the maximal existence time of \(u\), i.e., \(u\) can not be extended as an \(H^1\)-solution beyond \(T_m\). The main results obtained here are as follows. Blow up: If \(u_0\in V\), then \(T_m<+\infty\). Assume that \(u_0\geq 0\), \(\Delta u_0+|u_0|^{p^*-2}u\geq 0\) and \(\Omega\) is convex, then \(T_m<+\infty\) and \(u(t_0)= V\) for some \(t_0\in [0, T_m)\). Furthermore \(J(u(t))= O(\log(T_m- t))\) as \(t\uparrow T_m\) and \(\lim_{t\to T_m}|\nabla u(t)|_{L^2}= +\infty\). Global solution: (1) Assume that \(u_0\geq 0\), \(\Omega\) is star-shaped and \(T_m=+\infty\), then the following alternative (i) or (ii) holds: (i) \(u(t_0)\in W\) for some \(t_0\geq 0\) and \(\lim_{t\to+\infty}|u(t)|_{L^\infty}= \lim_{t\to+\infty}|\nabla u(t)|_{L^2}= \lim_{t\to+\infty} J(u(t))= 0\). (ii) \(u(t)\not\in W\cup V\) for all \(t\geq 0\), and \(\lim_{t\to+\infty}|u(t)|_{L^\infty}= +\infty\), \(0< \liminf_{t\to+\infty} |\nabla u(t)|_{L^2}< +\infty\), \(\lim_{t\to+\infty} J(u(t))> 0\). (2) Assume that \(\Omega\) is a unit ball, \(u_0\geq 0\), \(T_m=\infty\), \(u(t,x)=\widehat (t,|x|)\), \(\partial\widehat u(t,r)/\partial r< 0\) for all \(r\in (0,1)\) and \(t> 0\), then there exists a subsequence \(\{t_j\}\) satisfying \(t_j\to +\infty\) such that \(|\nabla u(t_j, x)|dx\rightharpoonup C_0\delta_0(dx)\), \(|u(t_j, x)|^{p^*} dx\rightharpoonup C_0\delta_0(dx)\) in measure, where \(\delta_0(dx)\) denotes the Dirac measure having unit mass at the origin and \(C_0= {2(p+1)\over p-1} \lim_{t\to+\infty} J(u(t))\geq 0\). The method of proofs rely on the energy method, rescaling technique and a nonexistence result of singular positive solutions for the stationary problem.