Exponential time decay of solutions to a nonlinear fourth-order parabolic equation (Q1404175)

The authors study the asymptotic behaviour of the solutions of the initial-boundary value problem \[ n_t = -(n (\log n)_{xx})_{xx}, \quad x \in (0,1), \tag{1} \] with the boundary conditions \[ n=1, \;n_x=0 \quad\text{at}\quad x=0,1, \tag{2} \] and a suitable initial condition \(n(x,0)= n_0(x)\). Such equations arise in the study of interface fluctuations in spin systems and in quantum semiconductor modelling. The main result is Theorem 1.1, which states that if \(n(t)\) is a weak solution to (1)-(2), then, defining \[ \eta_0 = \int_0^1 (n_0(\log n_0 -1)+1) dx \quad\text{and}\quad q_0 = \int_0^1 (n_0 - \log n_0) dx, \] we have that the solution \(n(t)\) and the entropy \[ \eta (t) = \int_0^1 (n(t)(\log n(t) -1)+1) dx \] satisfy for \(t \geq 0\) the inequalities \[ \|n(t)-1\|_{L^1} \leq \sqrt{\eta_0} (1+ \sqrt{2q_0}) e^{-2t/(q_0+1)} \quad\text{and}\quad \eta(t) \leq \eta_0 e^{-4t/(q_0+1)}, \] respectively. The proof uses the approach to (1)--(2) of \textit{A. Jüngel} and \textit{R. Pinnau} [SIAM J. Math. Anal. 32, 760-777 (2000; Zbl 0979.35061)], that is, strictly positive solutions to a semi-discrete (in time) problem are considered for most of the analysis, followed by a passage to the limit. Another ingredient in the proof is the use of detailed properties of the function \(n(\log n -1)+1\), such as a Csiszar-Kullback type inequality of Lemma 3.4.