Under suitable conditions, we obtain some characterization of supercontractivity, ultraboundedness and ultracontractivity of the evolution operator $G(t,s)$ associated to a class of nonautonomous second order parabolic equations with unbounded coefficients defined in $I\times\R^d$, where $I$ is a right-halfline. For this purpose, we establish an Harnack type estimate for $G(t,s)$ and a family of logarithmic Sobolev inequalities with respect to the unique tight evolution system of measures $\{ \mu_t: t \in I\}$ associated to $G(t,s)$. Sufficient conditions for the supercontractivity, ultraboundedness and ultracontractivity to hold are also provided.
Categories: math.AP