Well-posedness for the Navier-slip thin-film equation in the case of complete wetting (Q2447564)

The authors study regularity and stability properties of the free boundary problem \[ \partial_t + \partial_z(h^2\partial^3_zh) = 0, \qquad t > 0, z \in (Z_0(t),\infty) \] such that \[ h = \partial_zh = 0, \qquad \text{for } t > 0, z = Z_0(t), \] where \[ \dot Z_0(t) = \lim_{z \searrow Z_0(t)}h\partial^3_zh \qquad \text{for } t > 0. \] The equation describes a thin-film evolution that follows from the Navier-Stokes equations of a two-dimensional viscous thin film on a one-dimensional flat solid in a lubrication approximation. The function \(h(t,z)\) describe the height of the film, \(Z_0(t)\) denotes the position of the free boundary (the contact line). It is one of the main aims is to show that the traveling wave solution \(H_{TW} = x^{3/2}\) with \(x = z - V_0t\), \(\dot Z_0 = V_0\) is stable under small perturbations. Perturbations of the traveling wave are given by \(u(t,x) = F(t,x) - \) where \(F(t,x) = 1/\partial_xZ(t,x)\) so that the traveling wave is the constant solution \(F = F_{TW} \equiv 1\). Here \(Z(t,x)\) is defined by the hodograph transformation \(h(t,Z(t,x)) = x^{3/2}\). As a result, the following degenerated parabolic initial value problem for \(u(t,x)\) is derived \[ x\partial_tu + p(D)u = N(u), \qquad t > 0, x > 0 \] under the initial condition \( u(0,x) = u_0(x),\;x > 0\). Here \(D\) denotes the scaling-invariant logarithmic derivative, \(p\) is a fourth-order polynomial given by \(p(\zeta) = \zeta^4 + 2\zeta^3 - (9/8)\zeta = (\zeta + 3/8)(\zeta + \beta + 1/2)\zeta(\zeta - \beta)\) with the irrational number \(\beta = (\sqrt{13} - 1)/4\), the nonlinearity is \(N(u) = p(D)u - M(1 + u,\dots,1 + u)\) where \(M\) is the \(5\)-linear form \[ M(F_1,\dots,F_5) = F_1F_2D(D + 3/2)F_3(D - 1/2)F_4(D + 1/2)F_5. \] The authors prove the global existence and uniqueness close to traveling waves. The main ingredients are maximal regularity estimates in weighted \(L^2\)-spaces for the linearized evolution, after suitable substraction of \(a(t) + b(t)x^{\beta}\) terms.