Let G=(V,E) be a locally finite connected weighted graph, and Ω be an unbounded subset of V. Using Rothe's method, we study the existence of solutions for the semilinear heat equation ∂_t u+|u|^{p−1}⋅u=Δu (p≥1) and the parabolic variational inequality ∫_{Ω^∘} ∂_t u⋅(v−u)dμ ≥ ∫_{Ω^∘} (Δu+f)⋅(v−u)dμ for any v∈H, where H={u∈W^{1,2}(V):u=0 on V∖Ω^∘}.

Let G=(V,E) be a locally finite graph. Firstly, using calculus of variations, including a direct method of variation and the mountain-pass theory, we get sequences of solutions to several local equations on G (the Schrödinger equation, the mean field equation, and the Yamabe equation). Secondly, we derive uniform estimates for those local solution sequences. Finally, we obtain global solutions by extracting convergent sequence of solutions. Our method can be described as a variational method from local to global.

Inspired by works of Castéras (Pac J Math 276:321–345, 2015), Li and Zhu (Calc Var Partial Differ Equ 58:1–18, 2019), Sun and Zhu (Calc Var Partial Differ Equ 60:1–26, 2021), we propose a heat flow for the mean field equation on a connected finite graph G=(V,E). Namely ∂_tϕ(u)=Δu−Q+ρ\frac{e^u}{∫_V e^u dμ} u(⋅,0)=u_0, where Δ is the standard graph Laplacian, ρ is a real number, Q:V→R is a function satisfying ∫_V Qdμ=ρ, and ϕ:R→R is one of certain smooth functions including ϕ(s)=es. We prove that for any initial data u_0 and any ρ∈R, there exists a unique solution u:V×[0,+∞)→R of the above heat flow; moreover, u(x, t) converges to some function u_∞:V→R uniformly in x∈V as t→+∞, and u_∞ is a solution of the mean field equation Δu_∞−Q+ρ\frac{e^{u_∞}}{∫_V e^{u_∞}dμ}=0. Though G is a finite graph, this result is still unexpected, even in the special case Q≡0. Our approach reads as follows: the short time existence of the heat flow follows from the ODE theory; various integral estimates give its long time existence; moreover we establish a Lojasiewicz–Simon type inequality and use it to conclude the convergence of the heat flow.

In this paper, we prove two existence results of solutions to mean field equations Δu+e^u=ρδ_0 and Δu=λe^u(e^u−1)+4π\sum_{j=1}^M δ_{p_j} on an arbitrary connected finite graph, where ρ>0 and λ>0 are constants, M is a positive integer, and p_1,…,p_M are arbitrarily chosen distinct vertices on the graph.

Let G=(V,E) be a locally finite connected weighted graph, and Δ be the usual graph Laplacian. In this article, we study blow-up problems for the nonlinear parabolic equation u_t = Δu + f(u) on G. The blow-up phenomenons for u_t = Δu + f(u) are discussed in terms of two cases: (i) an initial condition is given; (ii) a Dirichlet boundary condition is given. We prove that if f satisfies appropriate conditions, then the corresponding solutions will blow up in a finite time.