Interaction between nonlinear diffusion and mean curvature of a surface with initial discontinuities

Abstract

We consider the Cauchy problems for a class of nonlinear diffusion equations where each initial data is given by a characteristic function of an open set $\Omega$ in the whole Euclidean space. If the boundary $\partial \Omega$ is of class of $C^2$ in a neighborhood of a point $x$ on it, then we extract the mean curvature of $\partial \Omega$ at $x$ from the initial diffusion at $x$. This corresponds to the author's previous result for the two-phase linear diffusion equation. Applications to some overdetermined problems for nonlinear diffusion equations are given.

22 pages