A new approach to initial traces in nonlinear filtration (Q757722)

This paper is concerned with supremum-estimates and Harnack-type inequalities for nonnegative weak solutions of the nonlinear filtration equation \(u_ t-\Delta \phi (u)=0\) in \({\mathbb{R}}^ N\times (0,t)\), where \(\phi: {\mathbb{R}}_+\to {\mathbb{R}}_+\) is absolutely continuous and nondecreasing with \(\phi (0)=0\), \(\phi (1)=1\), and \(1+\Lambda^{-1}\leq \phi '(s)s/\phi (s)\leq \Lambda\) for a.e. \(s>0\) and some \(\Lambda >2.\) These estimates allow the characterization of initial traces and provide information about the behavior of solutions at \(\infty.\) The results presented are basically known [see \textit{B. E. J. Dahlberg} and \textit{C. E. Kenig}, Rev. Mat. Iberoam. 2, 267-305 (1986; Zbl 0644.35057)]. The approach, however, differs from previous work in that it does not employ certain specific features of the porous medium equation. As outlined in the last section, the methods thus apply to a more general class of equations; they also yield some new results on gradient averages.