On uniqueness of weak solutions for the thin-film equation

Perturbations in context of PDEs (35B20) Initial value problems for higher-order parabolic systems (35K46) Degenerate parabolic equations (35K65) PDEs in connection with fluid mechanics (35Q35)

Abstract: In any number of space variables, we study the Cauchy problem related to the thin-film equation in the simplest case of a linearly degenerate mobility. This equation, derived from a lubrication approximation, also models the surface tension dominated flow of a thin viscous film in the Hele-Shaw cell. Our focus is on uniqueness of weak solutions in the "complete wetting" regime, when a zero contact angle between liquid and solid is imposed. In this case, we transform the problem by zooming into the free boundary and look at small Lipschitz perturbations of a quadratic stationary solution. In the perturbational setting, the main difficulty is to construct scale invariant function spaces in such a way that they are compatible with the structure of the nonlinear equation. Here we rely on the theory of singular integrals in spaces of homogeneous type to obtain linear estimates in these functions spaces which provide "optimal" conditions on the initial data under which a unique solution exists. In fact, this solution can be used to define a class of functions in which the original initial value problem has a unique (weak) solution. Moreover, we show that the interface between empty and wetted regions is an analytic hypersurface in time and space.

Review text

The existence of non-negative weak solutions to the thin film equation (TFE) \[ \partial_t h + \mathrm{div} \left( h \nabla\Delta h \right) = 0 \quad\text{ in }\quad (0,\infty)\times\mathbb{R}^n \] is now well-known but uniqueness is a more delicate issue, partly due to the degenerate diffusion when \(h\) vanishes and the lack of a comparison principle. It is shown herein that, if the initial condition \(h_0\) is sufficiently close to the stationary solution \(h_{\mathrm{st}}: y=(y_1,\ldots,y_n) \mapsto (y_n)_+^2\), then the thin film equation has a unique solution in a suitable class which stays close to \(h_{\mathrm{st}}\) in the sense that \(\sup\{ |\nabla\sqrt{h(s,x)} - e_n|\;:\;x\in\mathcal{P}(s)\}\) is small for all times \(s\geq 0\). Here, \(e_n\) is the unit vector corresponding to the \(y_n\)-axis and \(\mathcal{P}(s)\) denotes the positivity set of \(h(s)\) at time \(s\geq 0\). A by-product of the analysis is the analyticity of the level sets of the solution. The proof relies on the expected monotonicity with respect to \(y_n\) of solutions close to \(h_{\mathrm{st}}\) which allows the author to use the so-called von Mises transformation \[ \sqrt{h}(s,y',v(s,y',z)) = z\;, \quad y'=(y_1,\ldots,y_{n-1})\in \mathbb{R}^{n-1}\;, \quad z>0\;. \] Introducing \(u(t,x) = v(t,x) - x_n\) for \(t>0\) and \(x=(x_1,\ldots,x_n) \in H = \mathbb{R}^{n-1}\times (0,\infty)\), the function \(v\) solves a semilinear equation of the form \[ \partial_t u + Lu = f(u) \quad\text{ in }\quad (0,\infty)\times H\;, \] where \(L\) is the non-uniform parabolic operator \[ Lu(x) = \frac{1}{x_n} \Delta \left( x_n^3 \Delta u(x) \right) - 4 \Delta_{x'} u(x)\;. \] A suitable functional framework is identified in which the linear evolution equation associated to \(L\) is well-posed. Various regularity estimates and a representation formula featuring the Green's function are then derived. A fixed point argument is then used to construct a unique solution \(u\) to the nonlinear equation for small initial data.

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