We study the wave propagation speed problem on metric measure spaces, emphasizing on self-similar sets that are not postcritically finite. We prove that a sub-Gaussian lower heat kernel estimate leads to infinite propagation speed, extending a result of Y.-T. Lee to include bounded and unbounded generalized Sierpi\'nski carpets as well as some fractal blowups. We also formulate conditions under which a Gaussian upper heat kernel estimate leads to finite propagation speed, and apply this result to two classes of iterated function systems with overlaps, including those defining the classical infinite Bernoulli convolutions.

We consider a L 2-contraction (a L 2-type stability) of large viscous shock waves for the multi-dimensional scalar viscous conservation laws, up to a suitable shift by using the relative entropy methods. Quite different from the previous results, we find a new way to determine the shift function, which depends both on the time and space variables and solves a viscous Hamilton-Jacobi type equation with source terms. Moreover, we do not impose any conditions on the anti-derivative variables of the perturbation around the shock profile. More precisely, it is proved that if the initial perturbation around the viscous shock wave is suitably small in L 2-norm, then the L 2-contraction holds true for the viscous shock wave up to a suitable shift function. Note that BV-norm or the L-norm of the initial perturbation and the shock wave strength can be arbitrarily large. Furthermore, as the time t tends to infinity, the L 2-contraction holds

For the free surface problem of the highly subsonic heat-conducting inviscid flow in 2-D and 3-D, a priori estimates for geometric quantities of free surfaces, such as the second fundamental form and the injectivity radius of the normal exponential map, and the Sobolev norms of fluid variables are proved by investigating the coupling of the boundary geometry and the interior solutions. An interesting feature for the free surface problem studied in this paper is the loss of one more derivative than the problem of incompressible Euler equations for which a geometric approach was introduced by Christodoulou and Lindblad in [11]. Due to the loss of one more derivative and loss of symmetry of equations, the geometric approach in [11] needs to be substantially developed by exploring the interaction of large variation of temperature, heat-conduction, non-zero divergence of the fluid velocity and the evolution of free surfaces.

The Cauchy problem for the barotropic compressible Navier--Stokes equations on the whole two-dimensional space with vacuum as far field density is considered. When the shear viscosity is a positive constant and the bulk one is a power function of density with the power bigger than four-thirds, the global existence and uniqueness of strong and classical solutions is established. It should be remarked that there are no restrictions on the size of the data.

We study a certain improved fractional Sobolev–Poincaré inequality on domains, which can be considered as a fractional counterpart of the classical Sobolev–Poincaré inequality. We prove the equivalence of the corresponding weak and strong type inequalities; this leads to a simple proof of a strong type inequality on John domains. We also give necessary conditions for the validity of an improved fractional Sobolev–Poincaré inequality, in particular, we show that a domain of finite measure, satisfying this inequality and a ‘separation property’, is a John domain.