A Generalized Lane-Emden equation is a semilinear partial differential equation whose highest-order term is the Laplacian:
For a radial function in dimensions it becomes . The case gives the classical Lane-Emden equation.
Use the usual fractional Dirichlet domain scale: on , and . Its Sobolev embedding theorem gives
Such a positive exists precisely because the assumed is greater than . Consequently is continuous in time with values in this Hölder space on every compact positive-time interval. This embedding alone gives no two spatial derivatives for ; those must come from the equation.
First establish a bound that will also justify the nonlinear regularity steps. Put and
The constants and enclose both the initial data and the zero Dirichlet boundary data. Moreover and , so they are a supersolution and a subsolution for the parabolic comparison principle. A direct energy proof avoids assuming pointwise continuity at time zero. Let . This truncation has zero trace under the Sobolev trace operator; testing the evolution with and using integration by parts gives
For , the mean value theorem and imply . Therefore
The Gronwall inequality gives , since its initial L2 norm vanishes. For the initially rough datum, apply the inequality from and let , using in L2 space. The same argument for , which satisfies the same equation because is odd, proves
This is the invariant interval for a cubic reaction-diffusion equation; the energy calculation is valid by the Sobolev chain rule and approximation even before the stronger pointwise regularity is established.
Now fix and, if necessary, reduce the positive Hölder exponent . Rearranging the evolution gives the elliptic identity
Its right side is bounded on , because and . Boundary elliptic regularity first gives for every finite , uniformly on this time interval. For , the Sobolev embedding theorem makes spatially continuously differentiable, with a positive Hölder exponent. Thus lies in after reducing if necessary. The global Schauder estimate then gives .
These are continuous-in-time, not just separate-time, regularity statements. Since , the identity , initially an identity in L2 space, holds in once is known to belong to that space. Hence is locally Lipschitz in time into . Apply the global Schauder estimate to the difference of the two elliptic identities. Continuity of and of into proves .
To gain the spatial regularity of the time derivative itself, take time difference quotients of the evolution. If , their equations are
where
The coefficients have uniformly bounded spatial Hölder norms and temporal Hölder norms on compact positive-time cylinders: this follows from the spatial regularity just proved and the local time Lipschitz bound in . Also is uniformly bounded and tends to in . Positive-time parabolic Schauder estimates, applied away from the lower time edge, give uniform bounds for , with a slightly smaller exponent if needed. Passing to the limit proves that is continuous into and satisfies
The Dirichlet boundary condition for follows also by differentiating the identically zero boundary value in . Since was arbitrary, this proves the requested, genuinely stronger regularity:
This is positive-time smoothing for a semilinear heat equation; it is the extra parabolic step for , not just the Sobolev embedding theorem, that gives the topology asserted here.
Finally, a uniform bound excludes a finite maximal existence time for this semilinear partial differential equation. Restart at any positive time , using the heat semigroup on the Banach space with the supremum norm. Its variation-of-constants formula is
The heat semigroup is a contraction semigroup on . On the ball of radius , is Lipschitz with constant at most , and bounded by . Choose a time length so that the integral is at most and its Lipschitz constant is less than . The Banach fixed-point theorem then gives a local solution on , with independent of , because . If a finite maximal time existed, choosing less than before it would extend the same solution past it, a contradiction. Uniqueness identifies this continuation with the original solution, and positive-time smoothing restores the classical solution on each extended interval. The solution is globally defined and remains between and .
For a semilinear partial differential equation with smooth and smooth fixed boundary data, local boundedness permits positive-time elliptic regularity and parabolic smoothing. If is continuous with values in a Hölder space, elliptic estimates first give continuous spatial regularity for . Time difference quotients then solve a linear parabolic equation with coefficient converging to ; smoothing away from the initial time gives , hence . It is essential to gain spatial regularity for the time derivative too; alone does not imply .