We investigate the large-time behaviour of solutions to the nonlinear heat-conduction equation with absorption u_t = Δ(u^{σ + 1}) − u^β in Q = R^N × (0, ∞) (E) with N 1, σ > 0 and critical absorption exponent β = σ + 1 + 2/N; the initial function u(x, 0) = 0 is assumed to be integrable, nonnegative and compactly supported. We prove that u converges as t → ∞ to a unique self-similar function which is a contracted version of one of the asymptotic profiles of the nonabsorptive problem u_t = Δ(u^{σ + 1}), the same for any initial data. The cornerstone of the proof is a result about ω-limits of (infinite-dimensional) asymptotical dynamical systems. Combining this result with an asymptotic evaluation of the mass function as well as typical PDE estimates gives the behaviour of (E) for large times.

Similar unusual asymptotic behaviour is obtained for the equation u_t = div(¦Du¦^σ Du) − u^β with same conditions on σ and u(x, 0) and critical value for β = σ + 1 + (σ + 2)/N.