The persistence of logconcavity for positive solutions of the one dimensional heat equation

Abstract

AbstractConsider positive solutions of the one dimensional heat equation. The space variable x lies in (–a, a): the time variable t in (0,∞). When the solution u satisfies (i) u (±a, t) = 0, and (ii) u(·, 0) is logconcave, we give a new proof based on the Maximum Principle, that, for any fixed t > 0, u(·, t) remains logconcave. The same proof techniques are used to establish several new results related to this, including results concerning joint concavity in (x, t) similar to those considered in Kennington [15].