Sharp Regularity for Weak Solutions to the Porous Medium Equation

Abstract

Let $u$ be a nonnegative, local, weak solution to the porous medium equation for $m\ge2$ in a space-time cylinder $\Omega_T$. Fix a point $(x_o,t_o)\in\Omega_T$: if the average \[ a{\buildrel\mbox{def}\over{=}}\frac1{|B_r(x_o)|}\int_{B_r(x_o)}u(x,t_o)\,dx>0, \] then the quantity $|\nabla u^{m-1}|$ is locally bounded in a proper cylinder, whose center lies at time $t_o+a^{1-m}r^2$. This implies that in the same cylinder the solution $u$ is H\"older continuous with exponent $\alpha=\frac1{m-1}$, which is known to be optimal. Moreover, $u$ presents a sort of instantaneous regularisation, which we quantify.