We give examples of parabolic systems (in space dimension $n\ge 3$) having a solution with real analytic initial and boundary values which develops the discontinuity in the interior of the parabolic cylinder.

Let $T$ be a positive number or $+\infty$. We characterize all subsets $M$ of ${ℝ}^n\times ]0,T[$ such that $$\underset{X\in {ℝ}^n\times ]0,T[}{inf}u\left(X\right)=\underset{X\in M}{inf}u\left(X\right)i$$ for every positive parabolic function $u$ on ${ℝ}^n\times ]0,T[$ in terms of coparabolic (minimal) thinness of the set $M_{\delta }={\cup }_{(x,t)\in M}{B}^p((x,t),\delta t)$, where $\delta \in (0,1)$ and $B^p((x,t),r)$ is the “heat ball” with the “center” $(x,t)$ and radius $r$. Examples of different types of sets which can be used instead of “heat balls” are given. It is proved that (i) is equivalent to the condition ${sup}_{X\in {ℝ}^n\times {ℝ}^{+}}u\left(X\right)={sup}_{X\in M}u\left(X\right)$ for every bounded parabolic function on ${ℝ}^n\times {ℝ}^{+}$ and hence to all equivalent conditions given in the article...

We characterize all subsets $M$ of ${ℝ}^n\times {ℝ}^{+}$ such that $$\underset{X\in {ℝ}^n\times {ℝ}^{+}}{sup}u\left(X\right)=\underset{X\in M}{sup}u\left(X\right)$$ for every bounded parabolic function $u$ on ${ℝ}^n\times {ℝ}^{+}$. The closely related problem of representing functions as sums of Weierstrass kernels corresponding to points of $M$ is also considered. The results provide a parabolic counterpart to results for classical harmonic functions in a ball, see References. As a by-product the question of representability of probability continuous distributions as sums of multiples of normal distributions is investigated. ...