The location of the hot spot in a grounded convex conductor

Abstract

We investigate the location of the (unique) hot spot in a convex heat conductor with unitary initial temperature and with boundary grounded at zero temperature. We present two methods to locate the hot spot: the former is based on ideas related to the Alexandrov-Bakelmann-Pucci maximum principle and Monge-Amp\`ere equations; the latter relies on Alexandrov's reflection principle. We then show how such a problem can be simplified in case the conductor is a polyhedron. Finally, we present some numerical computations.