Nonlinear diffusions: Extremal properties of Barenblatt profiles, best matching and delays

In this paper, we consider functionals based on moments and nonlinear entropies which have a linear growth in time in case of source-type solutions to the fast diffusion or porous medium equations, that are also known as Barenblatt solutions. As functions of time, these functionals have convexity properties for generic solutions, so that their asymptotic slopes are extremal for Barenblatt profiles. The method relies on scaling properties of the evolution equations and provides a simple and direct proof of sharp Gagliardo–Nirenberg–Sobolev inequalities in scale invariant form. The method also gives refined estimates of the growth of the second moment and, as a consequence, establishes the monotonicity of the delay corresponding to the best matching Barenblatt solution compared to the Barenblatt solution with same initial second moment. Here the notion of best matching is defined in terms of a relative entropy.