Displacement solutions for time discretization and evolution problem related to minimal surfaces and plasticity: existence, uniqueness and regularity in the one-dimensional case (Q1854094)

A class of evolution equations and their time discretizations is studied. A model problem is the evolution equation for minimal surfaces \(u_t-\operatorname {div}\Bigl (\bigl (1+|\nabla u|^2\bigr)^{-1/2}\nabla u\Bigr)=f\) or the evolution equation for plastic materials. For the discretized problem, a solution of the relaxed problem is found in the space \(BV\cap L^2\). In the one-dimensional case, the authors obtain regularity of the solution, in spaces which depend on regularity of the right-hand side and the initial data. An example is exhibited that the equation does not have a regularizing effect if there is a jump in the initial data. The solution of the evolution problem is found in the space \(C([0,T],W^{1,1}((0,1)))\).