Generation and propagation of interfaces for \(p\)-Laplacian equations (Q1887425)

The authors look at the Cauchy problem for the equation \[ u_t- \text{div} (| \nabla u| ^{p-2}\nabla u) + \frac 1{\varepsilon^p}\varphi(u)=0 \] with \(p>2\) a fixed number and \(\varepsilon\) a positive parameter. In this context, an interface is a hypersurface \(\Gamma\) in \(\mathbb R^{n+1}\) such that \(u^\varepsilon\) tends to one number on one side of \(\Gamma\) and to another number on the other side. If \(\varphi\) is sufficiently smooth with three distinct real zeros \(u_-<u_0 < u_+\) with \(\varphi'(u_-)>0\), \(\varphi'(u_0)<0\), and \(\varphi'(u_+)>0\), then the limits must be \(u_{\pm}\). They show that an interface exists for appropriate initial values (smoothness of the initial values is the main assumption). They also show how the interface moves.