Viscous Hamilton-Jacobi equations in exponential Orlicz hearts

We provide a semigroup approach to the viscous Hamilton-Jacobi equation. It turns out that exponential Orlicz hearts are suitable spaces to handle the (quadratic) non-linearity of the Hamiltonian. Based on an abstract extension result for nonlinear semigroups on spaces of continuous functions, we represent the solution of the viscous Hamilton-Jacobi equation as a strongly continuous convex semigroup on an exponential Orlicz heart. As a result, the solution depends continuously on the initial data. We further determine the symmetric Lipschitz set which is invariant under the semigroup. This automatically yields a priori estimates and regularity in Sobolev spaces. In particular, on the domain restricted to the symmetric Lipschitz set, the generator can be explicitly determined and linked with the viscous Hamilton-Jacobi equation.