Degenerate Cahn-Hilliard equation: From nonlocal to local

Abstract

There has been recently an important interest in deriving rigorously the Cahn-Hilliard equation from the nonlocal equation, also called aggregation equation. So far, only non-degenerate mobilities were treated. Since we are motivated by models for the biomechanics of living tissues, it is useful to include degenerate motilities. In this framework, we present a new method to show the convergence of the nonlocal to the local degenerate Cahn-Hilliard equation. The method includes the use of nonlocal Poincar\'e and compactness inequalities.