Motion of multiple junctions: A level set approach (Q1331442)

This paper is concerned with the numerical computation of solutions of a reaction-diffusion equation \(u_ t=\epsilon\Delta u-\epsilon^{-1} f_ u(u)\), where \(\epsilon\) is a small parameter when the motion has multiple junctions. The approach proposed here is motivated by the so called ``Hamilton- Jacobi'' level set introduced by \textit{S. Osher} and \textit{J. A. Sethian} [J. Comput. Phys. 79, No. 1, 12-49 (1988; Zbl 0659.65132)] for the case of two regions and one interface separating them, which is able to capture very precisely the main features of the solution. Moreover, after the splitting of the reaction-diffusion equation, the algorithm used for propagating interfaces in the diffusion equation, in the case of multiple junctions, is constructed with curvature-depending motion. The paper also includes a comparative study with other numerical methods proposed recently by other authors for the same problem. Finally, the authors present the results of some numerical experiments together with interesting comments which make clear the behaviour of the new method depending on the relative values of the spatial stepsize and \(\epsilon\).