The quenching phenomena for the Cauchy problem of semilinear parabolic equations (Q5946980)

The authors investigate the Cauchy problem \(u_t- \delta u= \alpha(1+|x|)^m (1-u)^{-1}\) on \(\mathbb{R}^N\times (0,t)\) for vanishing initial data which decay to zero as \(|x|\to\infty\) for positive \(t\). They show: For \(N\leq 2\) and any \(m\in \mathbb{R}\), \(\alpha\in (0,\infty)\) the solution quenches (reaches 1) in finite time, while for \(N\geq 3\) the additional assumption \(m\geq -2\) is needed to guarantee quenching in finite time. For \(N\geq 3\) and \(m<-2\) there are global solutions provided \(\alpha\) is small, and no global ones if \(\alpha\) is large enough. In case of global solutions they derive a statement on the asymptotic profile as well.