Linear and nonlinear heat equations in \(L^q_\delta\) spaces and universal bounds for global solutions (Q5947124)

It is well known that some nonlinear parabolic equations have solutions which exist for all time for appropriate initial data while their solutions blow up in finite time for other initial data. For the simple equation \(-u_t + \Delta u +|u|^{p-1}u=0\) (with zero boundary data), all global solutions are bounded if \(1<p<(n+2)/(n-2)\) (or \(1<p\) if \(n=2\)), and there are unbounded global solutions if \(p \geq (n+2)/(n-2)\). For more general equations, similar results are known, but most results only show that the global solutions are bounded without any kind of estimate on that bound. The purpose of this paper is to examine a framework in which such estimates can be proved. The authors provide an \(L^\infty\) bound for solutions at any positive time, which is independent of the initial data. (Of course their bound becomes infinite as time approaches zero.) The key step is to estimate solutions of linear equations in the weighted Lebesgue space \(L_\delta^q\), which consists of all measurable functions \(v\) such that \(v^q\delta\) is integrable, where \(\delta\) denotes distance to the boundary. This estimate is proved by noting that \(\delta\) is bounded above and below by some positive multiples of the first Dirichlet eigenfunction for the Laplacian and applying some semigroup theory.