Spectral comparison principles for the Cahn-Hilliard and phase-field equations, and time scales for coarsening (Q919359)

The authors consider the following three eigenvalue problems \[ (CH)\quad -\Delta [-\Delta +q(x)I]\Phi =\lambda \Phi \text{ in } \Omega,\quad \partial_{\nu}\phi =\partial_{\nu}\Delta \Phi =0\text{ on } \partial \Omega \] \[ (PF)\quad (-\Delta +q(x)I)\Phi -\chi =a{\hat \lambda}\Phi \text{ in } \Omega,\quad \Delta \chi ={\hat \lambda}(\chi +l\Phi)\text{ on } \partial \Omega \] \[ (BD)\quad -\Delta \Phi +q(x)\Phi =\mu \Phi \text{ in } \Omega,\quad \partial_{\nu}\Phi =0\text{ on } \partial \Omega \] with the corresponding spectrum given respectively by \(\{\lambda_ n\}\), \(\{\) \({\hat \lambda}{}_ n\}\) and \(\{\mu_ n\}\). Their results can be summarized as follows: (1) For one dimensional problems, results are obtained relating the spectra \(\{\lambda_ n\}\), \(\{\) \({\hat \lambda}{}_ n\}\) and \(\{\mu_ n\}\) to the degree of coarseness of the stationary solutions; (2) For any dimensions inequalities are obtained relating the \(\lambda\) 's to the \(\mu\) 's, and also the \({\hat \lambda}\)'s to the \(\mu\) 's; (3) The index of instability of the stationary solution (number of unstable eigenvalues) in the (CH) and (PF) cases is related to the analogous index of instability for the (BD)-equation.