Stability for steady-state patterns in phase field dynamics associated with total variation energies (Q874682)

The author considered a mathematical model representing the dynamics of solid-liquid phase transitions taking place in a two-dimensional bounded domain. It is formulated as the coupled system of partial differential equations. The first equation is a kind of heat equation with a time-relaxation term additionally inserted in the heat flux. Since the additional term guarantees some smoothness of the velocity of the heat diffusion, it is expected that the behavior of temperature is estimated in stronger topology than in the usual heat equation. The second equation is of the so-called Allen-Cahn type, namely it is a kinetic equation of phase field dynamics derived as a gradient flow of an appropriate functional. Such functional (usually called free energy) is formulated using the total variation functional. The second equation involves a singular diffusion, which formally corresponds to a function of (mean) curvature on the free boundary between solid-liquid states (interface). It implies that this equation is a modified expression of Gibbs-Thomson law. The main results in this paper are that the geometry of the pattern drawn by solid-liquid phases in steady-state (steady-state pattern) has some stability in dynamical system generated by the present mathematical model. Then various geometric patterns, separated by gradual curves, can be shown as representative examples of such steady-state patterns, although some additional conditions for the geometry of steady state patterns are required.