Dynamics near extinction time of a singular diffusion equation (Q697321)

The paper is devoted to the study of the asymptotic behavior of positive solutions to the one-dimensional singular diffusion equation \(u_t=(\log u)_{xx}\) supplemented with an initial condition \(u_0\in L^1({\mathbb R})\) which is an even function, monotone decreasing on \(\mathbb R^+\). The main result says that the rescaled function \(v(x,s)=(T-t)^{- 1}u(x,t)\), \(s=-\log(T-t)\) converges towards \(2(\lambda\cosh^2(x/\sqrt{\lambda}))^{-1}\) as \(s\to\infty\), where \(T\) and \(\lambda\) depend on \(u_0\). This gives precise information on the profile of \(u\) near the extinction time \(T\).