Nonlinear diffusion equations as asymptotic limits of Cahn--Hilliard systems on unbounded domains via Cauchy's criterion

Abstract

This paper develops an abstract theory for subdifferential operators to give existence and uniqueness of solutions to the initial-boundary problem (P) for the nonlinear diffusion equation in an unbounded domain $\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^N$ ($N\in{\mathbb N}$), written as \[ \frac{\partial u}{\partial t} + (-\Delta+1)\beta(u) = g \quad \mbox{in}\ \Omega\times(0, T), \] which represents the porous media, the fast diffusion equations, etc., where $\beta$ is a single-valued maximal monotone function on $\mathbb{R}$, and $T>0$. Existence and uniqueness for (P) were directly proved under a growth condition for $\beta$ even though the Stefan problem was excluded from examples of (P). This paper completely removes the growth condition for $\beta$ by confirming Cauchy's criterion for solutions of the following approximate problem (P)$_{\varepsilon}$ with approximate parameter $\varepsilon>0$: \[ \frac{\partial u_{\varepsilon}}{\partial t} + (-\Delta+1)(\varepsilon(-\Delta+1)u_{\varepsilon} + \beta(u_{\varepsilon}) + \pi_{\varepsilon}(u_{\varepsilon})) = g \quad \mbox{in}\ \Omega\times(0, T), \] which is called the Cahn--Hilliard system, even if $\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^N$ ($N \in \mathbb{N}$) is an unbounded domain. Moreover, it can be seen that the Stefan problem is covered in the framework of this paper.