Long time behavior of the Cahn-Hilliard equation with irregular potentials and dynamic boundary conditions (Q606378)

This paper studies the long time behaviour of a Cahn-Hilliard system with dynamic boundary conditions and irregular potentials of the form \[ \begin{alignedat}{2} \partial_tu-\Delta u=0, \quad w=\Delta u+f_0(u)+\lambda u-h&= 0 &&\quad\text{in }\Omega,\\ \partial_nw=0, \quad v=u, \quad \partial_tv+\partial_nu-\Delta_\Gamma v+ f_\Gamma(v)+ \lambda_\Gamma v&=h_\Gamma &&\quad\text{on }\Gamma, \end{alignedat} \] with initial condition \(u(t=0)=u_{0}\). The equation is considered in a domain \(\Omega \subset \mathbb R^3\) with boundary \(\Gamma\) and \(\Delta_\Gamma\), \(\partial_n\) are the Laplace-Beltrami operator and the outward normal derivative at \(\Gamma\) respectively. The function \(f_0\) is smooth and monotone but becomes infinite at \(u=\pm 1\), (e.g. \(f_0(u)=c \ln(\frac{1+u}{1-u})\)), \(f_\Gamma\) is given and everywhere smooth, \(\Lambda,\Lambda_\Gamma\in\mathbb R\) and \(h,h_\Gamma\) are given source terms. The equation has been studied for regular \(f_{0}\) and \(f_\Gamma\), however, there are still open questions when \(f_0\) is of the form considered here, and the aim of this paper is to address these. The solutions of the problem are characterized by a real parameter \(m\in [-1,1]\) related to the mean value of \(u\) over \(\Omega\). The authors show existence of global solutions \((u,v)\) such that \(u \in L^\infty(0,T;H^1(\Omega)) \cap H^1(0,T;(H^1(\Omega))^*)\) and with \(v\) in the similar space but with \(\Omega\) replaced by \(\Gamma\), for all \(T \in (0,\infty)\), for every \(m\in (-1,1)\), which are unique for fixed \(m\). The proof uses Yosida regularization of \(f_0\) and a Galerkin approximation argument. The system defines a continuous semigroup which possesses a global attractor \({\mathcal A}_m\), compact in \(H^{1}(\Omega) \times H^{1}(\Gamma)\) and bounded in \(H^{3/2}(\Omega) \times H^{3/2}(\Gamma)\). Finally, the single solutions trajectories are studied and their \(\omega\)-limits are characterized as solutions of a stationary problem. Under additional assumptions on the nonlinear terms, upon application of the Simon-Lojasiewicz method, the \(\omega\)-limit set of any trajectory is shown to consist of a single point.