Numerical interfaces in nonlinear diffusion equations with finite extinction phenomena (Q1116673)

The nonlinear degenerate diffusion equation \(v_ t=(v^ m)_{xx}-cv^ p,\) (t,x)\(\in\) \((0,\infty)\times R^ 1\) with initial condition \(v(0,x)=v^ 0(x),\) \(x\in R^ 1\), where \(m(>1)\), \(c(>0)\) and \(p(>0)\) are all constants and \(v^ 0\) is a nonnegative continuous function with compact support, is considered for the case \(0<p<1\), where the support S(t) of the solution becomes empty after a finite time \(T^*\). This is called the finite extinction phenomenon. When \(m+p=2\), S(t) is not always monotone and so an interface tracking scheme to determine S(t) is proposed. It is found that if \((v^ 0)^{m-1}\) is concave on S(0), and if \(v_ h(t,x)\) is the discrete solution with \(\ell_ h(t)\) (resp. \(r_ h((t))\) as the front of the left (resp. right) hand side of it then \(v_ h(t,x)\) converges uniformly an \((0,\infty)\times R^ 1\) to the solution v(t,x) and there exist locally Lipschitz continuous functions \(\ell (t)\) and r(t) defined on \((0,T^*)\) satisfying \(S(t)=[\ell (t),r(t)]\) for \(0\leq t<T^*\), and \(\ell_ h(t)\) and \(r_ h(t)\) converge compact uniformly on \((0,T^*)\) to \(\ell (t)\) and r(t) as \(h\to 0\), respectively. If \(T^*_ h\) is the numerical extinction time of \(v_ h(t,x)\) then lim \(T_ h=T^*\), \(h\to 0\).