On a Cahn--Hilliard model for phase separation with elastic misfit (Q1775903)

In the recent time, the Cahn-Hilliard model for phase separation with elastic misfit is under fundamental analysis. This equation is a fourth order diffusion equation for the concentrations of the alloy components and the evolution is driven by diffusion potentials. The case of the Cahn-Hilliard system with logarithmic free energy but without elasticity has been already studied by C. M. Elliott and S. Luckhaus who proved an existence and uniqueness result. To derive a priori estimates, they differentiated the equation for the chemical potential difference with respect to time. The requirement of such differentiability is rather restrictive. In the present paper, the authors essentially weaken this requirement. Namely, the Cahn-Hilliard equation with a logarithmic singularity and a quadratic term in the displacement gradient is considered. Applying and extending the technique of M. Giaquinta and G. Modica, the authors prove that solutions to the Cahn-Hilliard system with elastic stresses exist. To control the logarithmic singularity, a global version of \(L^p\)-estimates for gradients of nonlinear elliptic systems is shown.