Quantitative local and global a priori estimates for fractional nonlinear diffusion equations

We establish quantitative estimates for solutions u(t, x) to the fractional nonlinear diffusion equation, partial derivative tu + (-Delta)(s) (u(m)) = 0 in the whole range of exponents m > 0, 0 <s < 1. The equation is posed in the whole space x ERd. We first obtain weighted global integral estimates that allow to establish existence of solutions for classes of large data. In the core of the paper we obtain quantitative pointwise lower estimates of the positivity of the solutions, " depending only on the norm of the initial data in a certain ball. The estimates take a different form in three exponent ranges: slow diffusion, good range of fast diffusion, and very fast diffusion. Finally, we show existence and uniqueness of initial traces. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.