A Liouville theorem for ancient solutions to a semilinear heat equation and its elliptic counterpart

Abstract: We establish the nonexistence of nontrivial ancient solutions to the nonlinear heat equation $u_t=\Delta u+|u|^{p-1}u$ which are smaller in absolute value than the self-similar radial singular steady state, provided that the exponent $p$ is strictly between Serrin's exponent and that of Joseph and Lundgren. This result was previously established by Fila and Yanagida [Tohoku Math. J. (2011)] by using forward self-similar solutions as barriers. In contrast, we apply a sweeping argument with a family of time independent weak supersolutions. Our approach naturally lends itself to yield an analogous Liouville type result for the steady state problem in higher dimensions. In fact, in the case of the critical Sobolev exponent we show the validity of our results for solutions that are smaller in absolute value than a 'Delaunay'-type singular solution.