The Cauchy problem for the inhomogeneous porous medium equation (Q875626)

The authors study the initial value problem for the inhomogeneous porous medium equation \(\rho(x)u_t = \Delta u^m\), \(m > 1\) posed on \(\mathbb R^n\), \(n \geq 2\) for \(t > 0\) with nonnegative initial datum \(u_0(x) \geq 0\). The authors prove that this problem is well-posed in the weighted space \(L_{\rho}^1\) and generates a contractive semigroup. Moreovere, the asymptotic behaviour of solutions in two space dimensions is investigated when \(\rho\) decays like a non-integrable power as \(x\to\infty\,: \, \rho(x)| x| ^{\alpha} \sim 1\) with \(\alpha \in (0,2)\). The authors show that the intermediate asymptotics is given by the unique selfsimilar solution of the singular problem \[ \begin{aligned} & | x| ^{-\alpha}u_t = \Delta u^m, \qquad \text{in } \mathbb R^2\times \mathbb R_+,\\ & | x| ^{-\alpha}u(x,0) = E\delta(x), \qquad E = \| u_0\| _{L_{\rho}^1}. \end{aligned} \]