Stability of facets of self-similar motion of a crystal (Q2504047)

One of the basic, and yet hard, questions in crystal growth is whether the normal velocities of the facets are constant over each facet. A facet with nonconstant velocity must break, otherwise it is said to be stable. The authors consider the stability question for a Stefan type problem of crystal growth whose evolving crystals, and Wulff shape, are straight circular cylinders. They use a variational approach to formulate the conditions guaranteeing that normal velocities over facets are constant. In the case of a self-similar motion, the authors give a necessary and sufficient condition for the stability of facets in terms of the size of the crystal and the supersaturation at space infinity.