We characterize the set of functions u0 ∈ L 2 (R n ) such that the solution of the problem ut = Lu in R n × (0, ∞) starting from u0 satisfy upper and lower bounds of the formHere L is in a large class of linear pseudo-differential operator with homogeneous symbol (including the Laplacian, the fractional Laplacian, etc.). Applications to nonlinear PDEs will be discussed: in particular our characterization provides necessary and sufficient conditions on u0 for a solution of the Navier-Stokes system to satisfy sharp upper-lower decay estimates as above.In doing so, we will revisit and improve the theory of decay characters by C. Bjorland, C. Niche, and M.E. Schonbek, by getting advantage of the insight provided by the Littlewood-Paley analysis and the use of Besov spaces.