On asymptotic time decay of solutions to a parabolic equation in unbounded domains (Q684354)

The authors study decay properties for \(t\to \infty\) for ``strong'' solutions of the linear parabolic initial boundary value problem \[ u_ t- (a_{ij} u_{x_ i} )_{x_ j}=0 \quad \text{in } \Omega\times (0,\infty), \] \(u(.,t)=0\) on \(\partial \Omega\) and at \(\infty\), \(u(.,0)= u_ 0(.)\) in \(\Omega\), where \(\Omega\) is an unbounded domain in \(\mathbb{R}^ 2\) or \(\mathbb{R}^ 3\). The authors show that the decay rate \(t^{-n/2}\) for \(\| u(., t)\|_{L^ \infty}\) (where the initial value is assumed to have compact support) may be improved for suitable initial values and suitable domains: If \(\Omega\) is contained in a wedge or cone with small opening and if the initial value \(u_ 0\) decays sufficiently fast at \(\infty\), then \(\| u(t) \|_{L^ p}\), \(p\geq 2\) decays to 0 as \(t\to \infty\), at a large decay rate. The key observation is that in some weighted Poincaré inequalities, the estimation constant tends to 0 as the opening of the wedge/cone becomes arbitrarily small.