Zero width limit of the heat equation on moving thin domains (Q2360097)

Summary: We study the behavior of a variational solution to the Neumann type problem of the heat equation on a moving thin domain \(\Omega_\varepsilon(t)\) that converges to an evolving surface \(\Gamma(t)\) as the width of \(\Omega_\varepsilon(t)\) goes to zero. We show that, under suitable assumptions, the average in the normal direction of \(\Gamma(t)\) of a variational solution to the heat equation converges weakly in a function space on \(\Gamma(t)\) as the width of \(\Omega_\varepsilon(t)\) goes to zero, and that the limit is a unique variational solution to a limit equation on \(\Gamma(t)\), which is a new type of linear diffusion equation involving the mean curvature and the normal velocity of \(\Gamma(t)\). We also estimate the difference between variational solutions to the heat equation on \(\Omega_\varepsilon(t)\) and the limit equation on \(\Gamma(t)\).