Weak solutions for a sixth-order phase-field equation with degenerate mobility (Q2305659)

The authors study an initial-boundary value problem arising from a nonlinear Willmore regularization in the Ginzburg-Landau free energy. Precisely, the paper concerns the following sixth-order phase-field equation \[ \left\{\begin{array}{ll} \displaystyle \frac{\partial u}{\partial t}=\nabla \cdot (M(u)\nabla \mu),& x\in \Omega \subset \mathbb R^3,\,t\in(0,T),\\ \\ \mu= f(u)-\Delta u+\omega f'(u)-\Delta \omega,\\ \\ \omega= f(u)-\Delta u, \end{array}\right. \] where \(f(s)=s(s^2-1)\) and the non-constant mobility \(M\) is given by \(M(u)=|(u-1)(u+1)|^m\), where \(m\in (0,1)\). The previous system is supplemented with periodic boundary value conditions and initial value condition \[ u(x, 0) = u_0(x) \] The authors treat also Neumann boundary conditions on \(u\), \(\Delta u\) and \(\Delta^2u\). The main result of the paper is the existence of a weak solution in a suitable sense. The proof is obtained by approximation of the degenerate mobility \(M\).