On a non-homogeneous and non-linear heat equation

Abstract: We consider the Cauchy-problem for a parabolic equation of the following type: \begin{equation*} \frac{\partial u}{\partial t}= \Delta u+ f(u,|x|), \end{equation*} where $f=f(u,|x|)$ is supercritical. We supply this equation by the initial condition $u(x,0)=\phi$, and we allow $\phi$ to be either bounded or unbounded in the origin but smaller than stationary singular solutions. We discuss local existence and long time behaviour for the solutions $u(t,x;\phi)$ for a wide class of non-homogeneous non-linearities $f$. We show that in the supercritical case, Ground States with slow decay lie on the threshold between blowing up initial data and the basin of attraction of the null solution. Our results extend previous ones allowing Matukuma-type potential and more generic dependence on $u$. Then, we further explore such a threshold in the subcritical case too. We find two families of initial data $\zeta(x)$ and $\psi(x)$ which are respectively above and below the threshold, and have arbitrarily small distance in $L^{\infty}$ norm, whose existence is new even for $f(u,r)=u^{q-1}$. Quite surprisingly both $\zeta(x)$ and $\psi(x)$ have fast decay (i.e. $\sim |x|^{2-n}$), while the expected critical asymptotic behavior is slow decay (i.e. $\sim |x|^{2/q-2}$).