A gradient flow approach to relaxation rates for the multi-dimensional Cahn-Hilliard Equation (Q2314816)

The authors investigate the relaxation rates for the Cahn-Hilliard equation on the strip \(S:=Q\times \mathbb{R}\subset \mathbb{R}^d\) with \(1\le d\le 5\): \[ \begin{cases} u_t-\Delta (G'(u)-\Delta u)=0,\quad x\in S,\quad t>0,\\ u(0)=u_0, \end{cases}\tag{1} \] where \(Q\) is the torus defined by \(Q:=\mathbb{R}^{d-1}/\mathbb{Z}^{d-1}\), the potential \(G\) is given by \(G(u)=\frac{(1-u^2)^2}{4}\), and the initial condition \(u_0\) satisfies the condition \(\int_S(u_0-v_0)\,dx=0\), with \(v_0(z)=\tanh\left(\frac{z}{\sqrt{2}}\right)\). They prove firstly the local existence, global existence and uniqueness of the smooth solutions of problem \((1)\). Then they show that the solutions of (1) converge to \(v_0\) at two different time-scales: a faster time-scale of order \(t^{-1/2}\) in which the solution \(u\) converges to the \(L^2\) closest kink \(v_{c(t)}\in \text{argmin}\{\|u(t)-v\|_{L^2},\,\,v\in\mathcal{K}\}\) with \(\mathcal{K}:=\{v_c(\cdot)=v_0(\cdot-c)\), \(c\in\mathbb{R}\}\), and a slower time-scale of order \(t^{-1/4}\) in which \(v_{c(t)}\) converges to \(v_0\).