Non-global existence for an Allen-Cahn-Gurtin equation with logarithmic free energy (Q1021386)

In this paper the authors are interested in the global existence of the solution of Allen-Cahn-Gurtin equation with logarithmic free energy. The Allen-Cahn equation \[ \beta \frac{\partial u}{\partial t}-\alpha \Delta u+f(u) =0( \alpha ,\beta >0) \] was generalized by Gurtin to the following form: \[ ( \beta -\operatorname{div} a) \frac{\partial u}{\partial t}+( b-a) \cdot \nabla \frac{\partial u}{\partial t}-\operatorname{div} \left( \partial _{\nabla u}\Psi ( u,\nabla u) +A\nabla \frac{\partial u}{\partial t} \right) +\partial _u\Psi ( u,\nabla u) =\gamma,\tag{1} \] where \(\beta =\beta (Z)\) is a scalar, \(a=a(Z)\) and \(b=b(Z)\) are vectors, \(A=A(Z)\) is a matrix with \( Z=( u,\nabla u,\frac{\partial u}{\partial t},\nabla \frac{\partial u}{ \partial t})\), \(\Psi =\Psi( u,\nabla u)\) is the free energy and \(\gamma \) the source term. The coefficients \(\beta ,a,b\) and \(A\) satisfy the following dissipativity condition, which guarantees that the equation is thermodynamically consistent: For all \(x\in \mathbb R\) and \(y\in \mathbb R^d\) it holds \[ \beta x^2+x( a+b) ^t\cdot y+y^t\cdot Ay\geq 0. \] The authors consider the case when \(\beta ,a,b\) and \(A\) are constant and when there is no source term. In this case the equation \((1)\) reduces to \[ \beta \frac{\partial u}{\partial t}+(b-a)\cdot \nabla \frac{ \partial u}{\partial t}-\operatorname{div} \left( A\nabla \frac{\partial u}{\partial t} \right) -\alpha \Delta u+f(u)=0. \tag{2} \] They study the equation (2) in space dimension \(d\leq 3 \) with \(f\) a polynomial of odd degree with positive leading coefficient, \( \beta >0,b-a\in \mathbb{R}^d\) and \(A\in M_d(\mathbb R)\) a symmetric positive definite matrix with constant coefficients, together with periodic boundary conditions. The authors proved uniqueness and global existence of solutions of (2) for a subcritical growth of \(f\) and for initial value in \( H_{\text{per}}^1.\) They also proved the existence of finite dimensional attractors. In the case when \(f\) is a logarithmic free energy, i.e. \[ f(s)=\frac \theta 2\ln \left( \frac{1+s}{1-s}\right) -\theta _cs, \quad s\in(-1,1),\;0<\theta <\theta _c, \] they show that strong solutions exist locally in time, but not globally, in general, and this is due to the lack of maximum principles being well-known the fact that Gurtin's generalization does not satisfy the maximum principle any more.