Modica type gradient estimates for reaction-diffusion equations and a parabolic counterpart of a conjecture of De Giorgi

arXiv1502.05758MaRDI QIDQ6259232FDOQ6259232

Agnid Banerjee, Nicola Garofalo

Publication date: 19 February 2015

Abstract: We continue the study of Modica type gradient estimates for non-homogeneous parabolic equations initiated in cite{BG}. First, we show that for the parabolic minimal surface equation with a semilinear force term if a certain gradient estimate is satisfied at $t=0$, then it holds for all later times $t>0$. We then establish analogous results for reaction-diffusion equations such as eqref{e0} below in $Omimes[0,T]$, where $Om$ is an epigraph such that the mean curvature of $partialOm$ is nonnegative. We then turn our attention to settings where such gradient estimates are valid without any a priori information on whether the estimate holds at some earlier time. Quite remarkably (see Theorem ef{main3}, Theorem ef{main5} and Theorem ef{T:ricci}), this is is true for $Rnimes(-infty,0]$ and $Omimes(-infty,0]$, where $Om$ is an epigraph satisfying the geometric assumption mentioned above, and for $Mimes(-infty,0]$, where $M$ is a connected, compact Riemannian manifold with nonnegative Ricci tensor. As a consequence of the gradient estimate eqref{mo2}, we establish a rigidity result (see Theorem ef{main6} below) for solutions to eqref{e0} which is the analogue of Theorem 5.1 in cite{CGS}. Finally, motivated by Theorem ef{main6}, we close the paper by proposing a parabolic version of the famous conjecture of De Giorgi also known as the $ve$-version of the Bernstein theorem.

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