Singular perturbation problems arising from the anisotropy of crystalline grain boundaries (Q2467199)

The paper considers singular perturbation heteroclinic problems which are motivated by a continuum model for studying interfaces in the context of crystals. This model is governed by an evolution PDE \[ \tau\frac{\partial}{\partial t}\bar X= L\bar X-\nabla F(\bar X), \] where \(\bar X\in \mathbb{R}^3\) represents the component variables defined in a volume \(\Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^3\), \(\tau\in \mathbb{R}\), \(L\) is a diagonal matrix of second order elliptic operators in the space variables \(\bar x\in \mathbb{R}^3\) and \(F\) is a function which is positive except at its several global minima. Grain boundaries correspond to plane waves in a direction \(\bar n\), i.e. solutions \(\bar X= \bar x(s)\), with \(s=\bar n\cdot \bar x-Vt\). The authors assume symmetries so that the problem reduces to one of the singular perturbation heteroclinic problems \[ \left\{ \begin{matrix} \varepsilon^2x''=g_x(x,r), &\quad x(-\infty)=0, &\,\,r(-\infty)=0, \\ r''=g_r(x,r), &\quad x(+\infty)=x_1, &\,\,r(+\infty)=r_1, \end{matrix} \right.\tag{1} \] or \[ \left\{ \begin{matrix} x''=g_x(x,r), &\quad x(-\infty)=0, &\,\,r(-\infty)=0, \\ \varepsilon^2r''=g_r(x,r), &\quad x(+\infty)=x_1, &\,\,r(+\infty)=r_1, \end{matrix} \right.\tag{2} \] where \(\varepsilon>0\) is a small parameter describing the anisotropy of the system and \(g\) is a given function. Under appropriate assumptions on \(g(x,r)\), the authors prove the existence of a solution \((x_{\varepsilon},r_{\varepsilon})\) of (1) for \(\varepsilon>0\) small enough. They study its limit as \(\varepsilon\) goes to zero. They also prove that \(0\) is a simple eigenvalue of the linear operator corresponding to the linearization of (1). The proof is based on the contraction mapping theorem and uses geometric singular perturbation theory. A similar result for problem (2) is given without proof.