Some remarks on the positivity of fundamental solutions for certain parabolic equations with constant coefficients (Q915966)

The Cauchy problem \[ Lu\equiv \partial u(t,x)/\partial t-\sum_{| \alpha | \leq 2m}a_{\alpha}(\partial /\partial x)^{\alpha} u(t,x)=0,\quad 0<t\leq T,\quad x\in {\mathbb{R}}^ n;\quad u(0,x)=u_ 0(x), \] is considered, where \(a_{\alpha}\) are such real constants that the operator L, of order 2m with respect to the space variables, is parabolic. The main result is that in cases where the integer \(m\geq 2\) and hence the order \(\geq 4\) the fundamental solution of L cannot remain nonnegative, in contrast to the fact that for the heat operator \(\partial /\partial t-\Delta,\) whose order is 2, the fundamental solution \((4\pi t)^{-n/2} \exp (-| x|^ 2/4t)\) is nonnegative.