A nonlinear diffusion equation with reaction localized to the half-line

Abstract: We study the behaviour of the solutions to the quasilinear heat equation with a reaction restricted to a half-line $$ u_t=(u^m)_{xx}+a(x) u^p, $$ $m, p>0$ and $a(x)=1$ for $x>0$, $a(x)=0$ for $x<0$. We first characterize the global existence exponent $p_0=1$ and the Fujita exponent $p_c=m+2$. Then we pass to study the grow-up rate in the case $p\le1$ and the blow-up rate for $p>1$. In particular we show that the grow-up rate is different as for global reaction if $p>m$ or $p=1\neq m$.