Analysis of the viscous Cahn-Hilliard equation in \(\mathbb R^N\) (Q656186)

Global existence and uniqueness of the Cauchy's problem for an extended viscous Cahn-Hilliard equation \[ (1-\nu)u_t =-\Delta (\Delta u + f(u)- \nu u_t) \] in \(\mathbb R^N\) are studied. First local solutions are derived by standard fixed-point arguments for the mild solution (variation of constants formula) in a standard Sobolev space \(H^{1}(\mathbb R^N)\). Global solutions are derived by energy or a-priori estimates. Here the authors introduce the notion of `H-solution' that is well adapted to the structure of the viscous Cahn-Hilliard equation. These are local solutions with additional regularity for \((-\Delta)^{-1/2} u\) and \((-\Delta)^{-1} u_t\). As it is verified in the paper, any local solution in \(H^1(\mathbb R^N)\) with \((-\Delta)^{-1/2} u(0)\in L^2(\mathbb R^N)\) is an `H-solution'. Furthermore, the authors also study the existence of a bounded absorbing set, and give a nice summary of known properties of the unbounded operator \(( -\Delta )^{ - 1}\) in \(\mathbb R^N\).