Gradient bounds for a thin film epitaxy equation (Q729924)

The authors consider a gradient flow modeling the epitaxial growth of thin films with slope selection. The surface height profile satisfies a nonlinear diffusion equation with biharmonic dissipation \[ \partial_t h=\nabla\cdot((|\nabla h|^2-1 )\nabla h)-v \Delta^2 h,\quad v>0\,. \] Optimal local and global well-posedness for initial data with critical regularity are established. To understand the mechanism of slope selection and the dependence on the dissipation coefficient, the authors exhibit several lower and upper bounds for the gradient of the solution in physical dimensions \(d\leq 3\).