Juan Luis Vazquez - Böcker

The Heat Equation is one of the three classical linear partial differential equations of second order that form the basis of any elementary introduction to the area of PDEs, and only recently has it come to be fairly well understood. In this monograph, aimed at research students and academics in mathematics and engineering, as well as engineering specialists, Professor Vazquez provides a systematic and comprehensive presentation of the mathematical theory of the nonlinear heat equation usually called the Porous Medium Equation (PME). This equation appears in a number of physical applications, such as to describe processes involving fluid flow, heat transfer or diffusion. Other applications have been proposed in mathematical biology, lubrication, boundary layer theory, and other fields. Each chapter contains a detailed introduction and is supplied with a section of notes, providing comments, historical notes or recommended reading, and exercises for the reader.

This text is concerned with the quantitative aspects of the theory of nonlinear diffusion equations; equations which can be seen as nonlinear variations of the classical heat equation. They appear as mathematical models in different branches of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Engineering, and are also relevant in differential geometry and relativistic physics. Much of the modern theory of such equations is based on estimates and functional analysis.Concentrating on a class of equations with nonlinearities of power type that lead to degenerate or singular parabolicity ("equations of porous medium type"), the aim of this text is to obtain sharp a priori estimates and decay rates for general classes of solutions in terms of estimates of particular problems. These estimates are the building blocks in understanding the qualitative theory, and the decay rates pave the way to the fine study of asymptotics. Many technically relevant questions are presented and analyzed in detail. A systematic picture of the most relevant phenomena is obtained for the equations under study, including time decay, smoothing, extinction in finite time, and delayed regularity.

This book introduces a new, state-of-the-art method for the study of the asymptotic behavior of solutions to evolution partial differential equations; much of the text is dedicated to the application of this method to a wide class of nonlinear diffusion equations. The underlying theory hinges on a new stability result, formulated in the abstract setting of infinite-dimensional dynamical systems, which states that under certain hypotheses, the omega-limit set of a perturbed dynamical system is stable under arbitrary asymptotically small perturbations.The Stability Theorem is examined in detail in the first chapter, followed by a review of basic results and methods---many original to the authors---for the solution of nonlinear diffusion equations. Further chapters provide a self-contained analysis of specific equations, with carefully-constructed theorems, proofs, and references. In addition to the derivation of interesting limiting behaviors, the book features a variety of estimation techniques for solutions of semi- and quasilinear parabolic equations.Written by established mathematicians at the forefront of the field, this work is a blend of delicate analysis and broad application, appropriate for graduate students and researchers in physics and mathematics who have basic knowledge of PDEs, ordinary differential equations, functional analysis, and some prior acquaintance with evolution equations.It is ideal for a course or seminar in evolution equations and asymptotics, and the book's comprehensive index and bibliography will make it useful as a reference volume as well.

common feature is that these evolution problems can be formulated as asymptoti­ cally small perturbations of certain dynamical systems with better-known behaviour. Now, it usually happens that the perturbation is small in a very weak sense, hence the difficulty (or impossibility) of applying more classical techniques. Though the method originated with the analysis of critical behaviour for evolu­ tion PDEs, in its abstract formulation it deals with a nonautonomous abstract differ­ ential equation (NDE) (1) Ut = A(u) + C(u, t), t > 0, where u has values in a Banach space, like an LP space, A is an autonomous (time-independent) operator and C is an asymptotically small perturbation, so that C(u(t), t) ~ ° as t ~ 00 along orbits {u(t)} of the evolution in a sense to be made precise, which in practice can be quite weak. We work in a situation in which the autonomous (limit) differential equation (ADE) Ut = A(u) (2) has a well-known asymptotic behaviour, and we want to prove that for large times the orbits of the original evolution problem converge to a certain class of limits of the autonomous equation. More precisely, we want to prove that the orbits of (NDE) are attracted by a certain limit set [2* of (ADE), which may consist of equilibria of the autonomous equation, or it can be a more complicated object.