Asymptotic behavior of a Cahn-Hilliard equation with Wentzell boundary conditions and mass conservation (Q950624)

This paper is concerned with the asymptotic behavior of the global solution to the following Cahn-Hilliard equation \[ \begin{aligned} u_t=\Delta\mu, &\quad\text{in}\quad (0,+\infty)\times\Omega,\\ \mu=-\Delta u+f(u), &\quad\text{in}\quad (0,+\infty)\times\Omega,\end{aligned} \] subject to the Wentzell boundary condition \(\Delta\mu+b\partial_{\nu}\mu=0\) on \((0,+\infty)\times \Gamma\), the variational boundary condition \[ -\alpha\Delta_{| | }u+\partial_{\nu}u+\beta u=\frac{\mu}b\quad \text{on} \quad (0,+\infty)\times\Gamma, \] and initial datum \(u_{| t=0}=u_0\), where \(\Omega\) is a bounded domain in \(\mathbb R^n\) (\(n=2,3\)) with a smooth boundary \(\Gamma\); \(\alpha,\beta\), and \(b\) are positive constants; \(\Delta\) denotes the classical Laplace operator; \(\Delta_{| | }\) denotes the Laplace-Beltrami operator on \(\Gamma\); \(\nu\) is the outward normal direction to the boundary \(\Gamma\). Without loss of generality and for the sake of simplicity, the authors set the positive constants \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\) equal to 1. The authors, under some suitable restrictions on the initial datum \(u_0\) and the potential function \(f\), prove, for \(b\in [1,+\infty]\), that the solution of problem (1)--(5) converges to a steady state (a single equilibrium) as time goes to infinity. Estimates of the rate of convergence to the equilibrium are obtained as well. A global unique solvability of the above problem has been previously proved by the first author in [Commun. Pure Appl. Anal. 7, No. 4, 819--836 (2008; Zbl 1165.35327)].