Complex transient patterns on the disk (Q874673)

This interesting paper deals with the Cahn-Hilliard model for spinodal decomposition in binary alloys. Namely, the nonlinear parabolic equation \[ \frac{\partial u}{\partial t}=-\Delta (\varepsilon^2\Delta u+f(u)) \] in \(\Omega\), subject to homogeneous Neumann boundary conditions \[ \frac{\partial u}{\partial\nu}=\frac{\partial\Delta u}{\partial\nu}=0 \] on \( \partial\Omega\), is considered in dimensions and space, where \(u\) is affine scaled to be between \(-1\) and \(1\), the domain \(\Omega\subset{\mathbb R}^n\) is bounded with appropriately smooth boundary, and the function \(f\) is the derivative of a double-well potential. On rectangular domains it is known that, starting at initial conditions near a homogeneous equilibrium, solutions to the linearized and nonlinear Cahn-Hilliard equation behave indistinguishably up to large distances from the homogeneous state. The authors demonstrate how these results can be generalized to nonrectangular domains, where particular emphasis is put on the case where \(\Omega\) is the unit disk. Here, the main goal is to extend the probabilistic methods of \textit{T. Wanner} [Trans.\ Am.\ Math.\ Soc.\ 356, No. 6, 2251--2279 (2004; Zbl 1073.35101)] given for a rectangular domain \(\Omega\). The authors extend Wanner's results on random sums to give an upper bound on the \(L^{\infty}(\Omega)\)-norm of time-varying superpositions of eigenfunctions and their gradients on the unit disk. While for rectangular domains there is a uniform bound for all eigenfunctions, for the unit disk the \(L^{\infty}(\Omega)\)-norm of the eigenfunctions depends on the eigenvalues.