Existence for an Allen-Cahn/Cahn-Hilliard system with degenerate mobility (Q1971103)

The authors prove existence in one space dimension of weak solutions to the Neumann problem for a degenerate parabolic system of the following form \[ \begin{aligned} u_{t}=\omega _1 Q(u,v)(F_u(u,v)- \varepsilon u_{xx})_x, &\quad (x,t)\in \Omega_T\\ v_t=-\omega_2 Q(u,v)(F_u(u,v)-\varepsilon v_{xx})_x, &\quad (x,t)\in \Omega_T \end{aligned} \] where \(\Omega \subseteq \mathbb{R}\) is a bounded open interval, \(\Omega_T =\Omega \times (0,T)\), \(F\) is the dimensionless homogeneous free energy of given form and \(Q(u,v)\) is nonnegative mobility. The problem of the existence of a solution to this system is ``delicate'' in several respects. For example, the degeneracy of the principal part leads, even when considering each solution in the system separately, to several open problems on well-posedness: the lack of uniqeness etc.