Mass Functions and Asymptotic Behavior of Caloric Functions on Affine Buildings

Abstract

We study the large-time asymptotic behavior of solutions to the discrete-time heat equation, i.e., caloric functions, on affine buildings, including those without transitive group actions. For each $p \in [1, \infty]$, we introduce a notion of a $p$-mass function and prove that caloric functions with initial data belonging to certain weighted-$\ell^1$ spaces or to the radial $\ell^1$ class, asymptotically decouple as the product of this mass function and the heat kernel. These results extend classical analogues from Euclidean spaces and symmetric spaces of non-compact type to the non-Archimedean setting, and remain valid even for exotic buildings beyond the Bruhat--Tits framework. We characterize the spatial concentration of heat kernels in $p$-norms and describe the geometry of associated critical regions. Our results highlight substantial differences in the asymptotic regimes depending on the value of $p$, and clarify the interplay between volume growth and heat diffusion.