Multidimensional Diffusion-Wave-Type Solutions to the Second-Order Evolutionary Equation

Abstract

The paper concerns a nonlinear second-order parabolic evolution equation, one of the well-known objects of mathematical physics, which describes the processes of high-temperature thermal conductivity, nonlinear diffusion, filtration of liquid in a porous medium and some other processes in continuum mechanics. A particular case of it is the well-known porous medium equation. Unlike previous studies, we consider the case of several spatial variables. We construct and study solutions that describe disturbances propagating over a zero background with a finite speed, usually called ‘diffusion-wave-type solutions’. Such effects are atypical for parabolic equations and appear since the equation degenerates on manifolds where the desired function vanishes. The paper pays special attention to exact solutions of the required type, which can be expressed as either explicit or implicit formulas, as well as a reduction of the partial differential equation to an ordinary differential equation that cannot be integrated in quadratures. In this connection, Cauchy problems for second-order ordinary differential equations arise, inheriting the singularities of the original formulation. We prove the existence of continuously differentiable solutions for them. A new example, an analog of the classic example by S.V. Kovalevskaya for the considered case, is constructed. We also proved a new existence and uniqueness theorem of heat-wave-type solutions in the class of piece-wise analytic functions, generalizing previous ones. During the proof, we transit to the hodograph plane, which allows us to overcome the analytical difficulties.