Perturbations of self-similar solutions

Abstract

We consider the nonlinear heat equation $u_t = Δu + |u|^αu$ with $α>0$, either on ${\mathbb R}^N $, $N\ge 1$, or on a bounded domain with Dirichlet boundary conditions. We prove that in the Sobolev subcritical case $(N-2) α<4$, for every $μ\in {\mathbb R}$, if the initial value $u_0$ satisfies $u_0 (x) = μ|x-x_0|^{-\frac {2} {α}}$ in a neighborhood of some $x_0\in Ω$ and is bounded outside that neighborhood, then there exist infinitely many solutions of the heat equation with the initial condition $u(0)= u_0$. The proof uses a fixed-point argument to construct perturbations of self-similar solutions with initial value $μ|x-x_0|^{-\frac {2} {α}}$ on ${\mathbb R}^N $. Moreover, if $μ\ge μ_0$ for a certain $ μ_0( N, α)\ge 0$, and $u_0 I\ge 0$, then there is no nonnegative local solution of the heat equation with the initial condition $u(0)= u_0$, but there are infinitely many sign-changing solutions.