Stability of the travelling wave in a 2D weakly nonlinear Stefan problem (Q1042712)

The authors investigate the stability of the travelling wave (TW) solution to scalar two-dimensional weakly nonlinear Stefan free boundary problem as a simplified version of a solid-liquid interface model. The solidification front is represented by \(x=\xi(t,y)\). The (supercooled) liquid phase is for \(x<\xi(t,y)\), the solid phase is for \(x>\xi(t,y)\). The heat dynamics is described by the heat conduction equation \(T_{t}=\Delta T\), \(x\neq\xi(t,y)\), \(x,y\in \mathbb{R}\) in assumption of periodicity in \(y\) with period \(\ell\). At \(x=-\infty\), the temperature of the liquid is normalized to 0. At the front \(x=\xi(t,y)\) there are two conditions: 1) the balance of energy at the interface is given by the jump \[ \bigg[\frac{\partial T}{\partial n}\bigg]=V_{n}=\frac{\xi_{t}}{\sqrt{1+\xi^{2}_{y}}}, \] where \(V_{n}\) is the normal velocity; 2) according to the Gibbs-Thompson law, the non-equilibrium interface temperature is defined by \[ T=1-\gamma k+r(V_{n}), \] where the melting temperature has been normalized to 1, \(k\) is the interface curvature and the positive constant \(\gamma\) represents the solid-liquid surface tension. The function \(r\) is increasing and such that \(r(-1)=0,r'(-1)=1\). It is assumed that \(r-1\) is linear and consequently \[ T=1-\gamma k+1 +V_{n}. \] The system admits a one-phase planar travelling wave solution \(\widehat{T}\), corresponding to a planar front, which satisfies \[ \widehat{T}_{x}=\widehat{T}_{xx}, \quad x\neq 0. \] At the front \(x=0\), \(\widehat{T}_{x}=-1\), \(\widehat{T}=1\), hence \(\widehat{T}(x)=e^{x}\) for \(x\leq0\), and \(\widehat{T}(x)=1\) for \(x>0\). The first main result is related to the stability of the TW: There exists a \(\gamma_{c}<1\) such that, for \(\gamma>\gamma_{c}\) the TW is orbitally stable (with asymptotic phase). For \(0<\gamma<\gamma_{c}\) it is unstable. As \(\ell\rightarrow+\infty,\gamma_{c}\rightarrow1\). The second main results is related to Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation \[ \psi_{t}+\nu\psi_{yyyy}+\psi_{yy}+\tfrac{1}{2}(\psi_{y})^{2}=0, \nu>0, \] where it is derived 1D equation for the corrugated front, at least near the planar front. For solving these problems spectral methods of nonlinear functional analysis and theory of differential operators are used.