Continuum limit for some growth models. (Q2574499)

Hamilton-Jacobi equation for macroscopic evolution of a class of growth models is derived. The growth models are defined by means of a uniformly continuous function \(\lambda : \mathbb R^d\times \mathbb R \to \mathbb R\), uniformly Lipschitz in the last argument, and a nonnegative function \(v:\mathbb Z^d\to \mathbb Z^+,\;v(0)=0\), the configuration space consisting of functions \(h\) such that \(h(i)-h(j)\leq v(i-j)\) for all sites \(i,j\). Dynamics in configuration space is defined so that the functions \(u^\varepsilon (x,t)=\varepsilon h([x/\varepsilon ], t/\varepsilon )\) are expected to converge to a function \(u(x,t)\) that solves a Hamilton-Jacobi equation of the form \(u_t +\lambda (x,u)H(u_x)=0\). This is established under certain conditions on \(\lambda \). The method of derivation leads to a variational expression for the solutions, which offers a physically relevant candidate for the solution even if the uniqueness for the viscosity solution fails.