On Cauchy Problems for Parabolic Equations with Rough Coefficients

Abstract

The presented work investigates the Cauchy problems for parabolic equations in both non-divergence and divergence forms with rough diffusion coefficients, which commonly arise in composite media, financial pricing, and viscous fluids. Under critical regularity settings, we establish the unique solvability in optimal fractional Sobolev spaces. The first key technical step lies in constructing an effective approximation scheme with truncated and mollified diffusion coefficients $a^\epsilon(t,x)$, for which we rigorously prove the uniform preservation of high-frequency smallness. By incorporating this approximation scheme with paraproduct decomposition, Fefferman-Stein maximal inequalities, Coifman-Meyer bilinear estimates, and refined Sobolev embeddings, we close the uniform a priori estimates and then pass to the limit. Furthermore, we prove that the threshold $s<\frac{1}{2}$ is sharp by constructing explicit counterexamples. These theoretical results provide a rigorous mathematical framework in the study of Cauchy problems for parabolic equations with rough coefficients.