Energy barrier and \(\Gamma\)-convergence in the \(d\)-dimensional Cahn-Hilliard equation (Q493213)

The authors analyze an energy barrier around the uniform state in the context of the \(d\)-dimensional Cahn-Hilliard equation \(u_t=- \Delta (\Delta u - G'(u))\) for the mixing of a binary alloy, where the order parameter \(u\) indicates the percentage of material in each phase. The \(d\)-dimensional Cahn-Hilliard equation is studied on the flat torus in a parameter regime in which the system size is large and the mean value is close, but not too close, to \(-1\). Under the energy barrier the authors understand the difference between the energy of the minimum energy state on the boundary of the basin of attraction of the uniform state and the energy of the uniform state itself. In this setting, they derive a sharp leading order estimate of the size of the energy barrier surrounding the uniform state. A sharp interface version of the proof leads to a \(\Gamma\)-limit of the rescaled energy gap between a given function and the uniform state. The limiting functional is predicted by the heuristics and depends linearly on the perimeter and quadratically on the volume of the \(+1\) phase in the limit.