Convergence of the Cahn-Hilliard equation to the Mullins-Sekerka problem in spherical symmetry (Q1910866)

The author studies the Cahn-Hilliard equation \(\varphi_t= \Delta u\), \(u= -\varepsilon \Delta\varphi+ {1\over \varepsilon} W'(\varphi)\), where \(\varepsilon> 0\) is a small parameter. The limiting behavior of the dynamics of this equation for \(\varepsilon\to 0\) is the main subject. Because of the small \(\varepsilon\), very thin layers arise (which correspond to the interfaces of certain reacting material in the physical phenomena) and their geometric behavior are the interest of the author. In the case of the radial symmetric situation, the limit problem \((\varepsilon= 0)\) is derived as a certain surface evolving equation which involves the mean curvature in a complicated way.