Non-self-similar blow-up in the heat flow for harmonic maps in higher dimensions

Abstract

We analyze the finite-time blow-up of solutions of the heat flow for $k$-corotational maps $\mathbb R^d\to S^d$. For each dimension $d>2+k(2+2\sqrt{2})$ we construct a countable family of blow-up solutions via a method of matched asymptotics by glueing a re-scaled harmonic map to the singular self-similar solution: the equatorial map. We find that the blow-up rates of the constructed solutions are closely related to the eigenvalues of the self-similar solution. In the case of $1$-corotational maps our solutions are stable and represent the generic blow-up.