Weak solutions to the Muskat problem with surface tension via optimal transport (Q2219481)

The global existence of weak solutions for the Muskat problem with surface tension, based on its gradient flow structure is obtained. The paper is organized as follows. Section 1 is an introduction. In the same section, the statement of the problem and its variational formulation are given. The main theorem of the paper is also formulated in Section 1. In Section 2, the basic properties of the minimizing movements scheme are derived and discrete-time quantities are constructed. The existence of pressure as a Lagrange multiplier for the incompressibility constraint is derived and the Euler-Lagrange equation for the minimization problem is obtained. In Section 3, weak solutions to the Muskat problem are obtained, under the assumption that the internal energy of the discrete solutions converges to the internal energy of the limiting solutions. The main task in Section 3 amounts to showing that one can pass to the limit in the Euler-Lagrange equation obtained in Section 2. In Section 4, several numerical examples with illustrations are given and discussed. Finally, in Appendix A, the results that are used when passing to the limit the weak curvature equation are recalled from the following paper [\textit{T. Laux} and \textit{F. Otto}, Calc. Var. Partial Differ. Equ. 55, No. 5, Paper No. 129, 74 p. (2016; Zbl 1388.35121)].