We investigate the existence of non-constant uniformly-bounded minimal solutions of the Allen-Cahn equation on a Gromov-hyperbolic group. We show that whenever the Laplace term in the Allen-Cahn equation is small enough, there exist minimal solutions satisfying a large class of prescribed asymptotic behaviours. For a phase field model on a hyperbolic group, such solutions describe phase transitions that asymptotically converge towards prescribed phases, given by asymptotic directions. In the spirit of de Giorgi's conjecture, we then fix an asymptotic behaviour and let the Laplace term go to zero. In the limit we obtain a solution to a corresponding asymptotic Plateau problem by $Γ$-convergence.
We investigate minimal solutions of the Allen-Cahn equation on a Gromov-hyperbolic graph. Under some natural conditions on the graph, we show the existence of non-constant uniformly-bounded minimal solutions with prescribed asymptotic behaviours. For a phase field model on a hyperbolic graph, such solutions describe energy-minimising steady-state phase transitions that converge towards prescribed phases given by the asymptotic directions on the graph.
We study a variational model for transition layers in thin ferromagnetic films with an underlying functional that combines an Allen-Cahn type structure with an additional nonlocal interaction term. The model represents the magnetisation by a map from $\mathbb{R}$ to $\mathbb{S}^1$. Thus it has a topological invariant in the form of a winding number, and we study minimisers subject to a prescribed winding number. As shown in our previous paper Ignat-Moser (JDE 2017), the nonlocal term gives rise to solutions that would not be present for a functional including only the (local) Allen-Cahn terms.…
In this paper, we prove even symmetry of monotone traveling wave solutions to the balanced Allen-Cahn equation in the entire plane. Related results for the unbalanced Allen-Cahn equation are also discussed.
In this paper, we are interested in bounded, entire, solutions of the Allen-Cahn equation which are defined in Euclidean space and whose zero set is asymptotic to a given minimal cone. In particular, in dimension larger than or equal to 8, we prove the existence of stable solutions of the Allen-Cahn equation whose zero sets are not hyperplanes.
For the Allen-Cahn equation, it is well known that there is a monotone standing wave joining with the balanced wells of the potential. In this paper we study the existence of traveling wave solutions for the Allen-Cahn equation on an infinite channel. Such traveling wave solutions possess a large number of oscillation and they are obtained with the aid of variational arguments.
We study entire viscosity solutions of the Allen-Cahn type equation for the truncated Laplacian that are either one dimensional or radial, in order to shed some light on a possible extension of the Gibbons conjecture in this degenerate elliptic setting.
In this paper, we study the relation between the second inner variations of the Allen-Cahn functional and its Gamma-limit, the area functional. Our result implies that the Allen-Cahn functional only approximates well the area functional up to the first order. However, as an application of our result, we prove, assuming the single-multiplicity property of the limiting energy, that the Morse indices of critical points of the Allen-Cahn functional are bounded from below by the Morse index of the limiting minimal hypersurface.
In this paper we consider the Allen-Cahn equation with constraint. In 1994, Chen and Elliott studied the asymptotic behavior of the solution of the Allen-Cahn equation with constraint. They proved that the zero level set of the solution converges to the classical solution of the mean curvature flow under the suitable conditions on initial data. In 1993, Ilmanen proved the existence of the mean curvature flow via the Allen-Cahn equation without constraint in the sense of Brakke. We proved the same conclusion for the Allen-Cahn equation with constraint.
In this set of notes, we present some recent developments on the fractional Allen-Cahn equation $$ (-Δ)^s u = u-u^3,$$ with special attention to $Γ$-convergence results, energy and density estimates, convergence of level sets, Hamiltonian estimates, rigidity and symmetry results.
We establish existence and non-existence results for entire solutions to the fractional Allen-Cahn equation in $\mathbb R^3$, which vanish on helicoids and are invariant under screw-motion. In addition, we prove that helicoids are surfaces with vanishing nonlocal mean curvature.
We consider a Dirichlet problem for the Allen-Cahn equation in a smooth, bounded or unbounded, domain $Ω\subset {\bf R}^n.$ Under suitable assumptions, we prove an existence result and a uniform exponential estimate for symmetric solutions. In dimension n=2 an additional asymptotic result is obtained. These results are based on a pointwise estimate obtained for local minimizers of the Allen-Cahn energy.
We prove optimal lower bounds for the growth of the energy over balls of minimizers to the vectorial Allen-Cahn energy in two spatial dimensions, as the radius tends to infinity. In the case of radially symmetric solutions, we can prove a stronger result in all dimensions.
In this paper we study the fractional analogue of the Allen-Cahn energy in bounded domains, and we show that it admits a number of critical points which goes to infinity as the perturbation parameter tends to zero.
For a solution of the Allen-Cahn equation in $\mathbb{R}^2$, under the natural linear growth energy bound, we show that the blowing down limit is unique. Furthermore, if the solution has finite Morse index, the blowing down limit satisfies the multiplicity one property.
This article presents some qualitative results for entire solutions of the fully nonlinear elliptic equations of Allen Cahn type . Precisely under some additional assumptions on the forcing term, if the solution is bounded and converges uniformly at infinity in a fixed direction to its extrema, then the solution depends only on one variable.
This paper studies two well-known models for two-phase fluid flow at constant temperature, the isothermal Navier-Stokes-Allen-Cahn and the isothermal Navier-Stokes-Cahn-Hilliard equations, both of which consist of equations for the (total) fluid density rho, the (mass-averaged)velocity u and the concentration (of one of the phases,) c. Assuming in either case that both phases are incompressible with different densities, each of the models is shown to reduce to a system of evolution equations in rho and u alone. In the case of the Navier-Stokes-Allen-Cahn model, this reduced system is the class…
We show that strictly stable components of Allen-Cahn minimal hypersurfaces always occur with multiplicity one. We also establish the uniqueness of solutions converging to nondegenerate hypersurfaces with multiplicity one. Our results work in all dimensions and without variational assumptions on the Allen-Cahn solutions.
We consider solutions of the Allen-Cahn equation in the whole Grushin plane and we show that if they are monotone in the vertical direction, then they are stable and they satisfy a good energy estimate. However, they are not necessarily one-dimensional, as a counter-example shows.
In this paper we establish an improvement of tilt-excess decay estimate for the Allen-Cahn equation, and use this to give a new proof of Savin's theorem on the uniform $C^{1,α}$ regularity of flat level sets, which then implies the one dimensional symmetry of minimizers in $\mathbb{R}^n$ for $n\leq 7$. This generalizes Allard's $\varepsilon$-regularity theorem for stationary varifolds to the setting of Allen-Cahn equations.
We study perturbations of the Allen-Cahn equation and prove the convergence to forced mean curvature flow in the sharp interface limit. We allow for perturbations that are square-integrable with respect to the diffuse surface area measure. We give a suitable generalized formulation for forced mean curvature flow and apply previous results for the Allen-Cahn action functional. Finally we discuss some applications.
In this paper we find solutions $u_ε$ to a certain class of vector-valued parabolic Allen-Cahn equation that as $ε\to 0$ develops as interface a given triod evolving under curve shortening flow.
In this paper, we prove even symmetry and monotonicity of certain solutions of Allen-Cahn equation in a half plane. We also show that entire solutions with {\it finite Morse index} and {\it four ends} must be evenly symmetric with respect to two orthogonal axes. A classification scheme of general entire solutions with {\it finite Morse index} is also presented using energy quantization.
Formal asymptotic expansions have long been used to study the singularly perturbed Allen-Cahn type equations and reaction-diffusion systems, including in particular the FitzHugh-Nagumo system. Despite their successful role, it has been largely unclear whether or not such expansions really represent the actual profile of solutions with rather general initial data. By combining our earlier result and known properties of eternal solutions of the Allen-Cahn equation, we prove validity of the principal term of the formal expansions for a large class of solutions.
In this paper we study axially symmetric solutions of Allen-Cahn equation with finite Morse index. It is shown that there does not exist such a solution in dimensions between $4$ and $10$. In dimension $3$, we prove that these solutions have finitely many ends. Furthermore, the solution has exactly two ends if its Morse index equals $1$.
In this paper we prove an analogue of the Brakke's $\varepsilon$-regularity theorem for the parabolic Allen-Cahn equation. In particular, we show uniform $C^{2,α}$ regularity for the transition layers converging to smooth mean curvature flows as $\varepsilon\rightarrow0$. The proof utilises Allen-Cahn versions of the monotonicity formula, parabolic Lipschitz approximation and blowups. A corresponding gap theorem for entire eternal solutions of the parabolic Allen-Cahn is also obtained. As an application of the regularity theorem, we give an affirmative answer to a question of Ilmanen that ther…
We investigate the behavior, as a small parameter tends to zero, of a nonlocal Allen-Cahn equation. Given a rather general initial data, we perform a rigorous analysis of both the generation and the motion of interface, and obtain a new estimate for its thickness. The limit problem involves motion by mean curvature together with a nonlocal effect (which allows the possibility of nontrivial stationary state).
We give a short and self-contained proof for rates of convergence of the Allen-Cahn equation towards mean curvature flow, assuming that a classical (smooth) solution to the latter exists and starting from well-prepared initial data. Our approach is based on a relative entropy technique. In particular, it does not require a stability analysis for the linearized Allen-Cahn operator. As our analysis also does not rely on the comparison principle, we expect it to be applicable to more complex equations and systems.
In this paper, we consider bounded positive solutions to the Allen-Cahn equation on complete noncompact Riemannian manifolds without boundary. We derive gradient estimates for those solutions. As an application, we get a Liouville type theorem on manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature.
We are concerned with solutions to the parabolic Allen-Cahn equation in Riemannian manifolds. For a general class of initial condition we show non positivity of the limiting energy discrepancy. This in turn allows to prove almost monotonicity formula (a weak counterpart of Huisken's monotonicity formula) which gives a local uniform control of the energy densities at small scales. Such results will be used in [40] to extend previous important results from [31] in Euclidean space, showing convergence of solutions to the parabolic Allen-Cahn equations to Brakke's motion by mean curvature in space…
In this paper, we study the vanishing viscosity limit for a coupled Navier-Stokes/Allen-Cahn system in a bounded domain. We first show the local existence of smooth solutions of the Euler/Allen-Cahn equations by modified Galerkin method. Then using the boundary layer function to deal with the mismatch of the boundary conditions between Navier-Stokes and Euler equations, and assuming that the energy dissipation for Navier-Stokes equation in the boundary layer goes to zero as the viscosity tends to zero, we prove that the solutions of the Navier-Stokes/Allen-Cahn system converge to that of the E…
We study the kink motion for the one-dimensional stochastic Allen-Cahn equation and its mass conserving counterpart. Using a deterministic slow manifold, in the sharp interface limit for sufficiently small noise strength we derive an explicit stochastic differential equation for the motion of the interfaces, which is valid as long as the solution stays close to the manifold. On a relevant time-scale, where interfaces move at most by the minimal allowed distance between interfaces, we show that the kinks behave approximately like the driving Wiener-process projected onto the slow manifold, whil…
In this paper we consider the Allen-Cahn equation perturbed by a stochastic flux term and prove a large deviation principle. Using an associated stochastic flow of diffeomorphisms the equation can be transformed to a parabolic partial differential equation with random coefficients. We use this structure and first provide a large deviation principle for stochastic flows in function spaces with Hölder-continuity in time. Second, we use a continuity argument and deduce a large deviation principle for the stochastic Allen-Cahn equation.
By using the unique continuation principle for linear elliptic systems, we can simplify the proof of a recent variational maximum principle due to Alikakos and Fusco. At the same time, this approach allows us to relax an assumption from the latter reference.
We prove convergence of solutions to the parabolic Allen-Cahn equation to Brakke's motion by mean curvature in space forms, generalizing previous results from [15] in Euclidean space. We show that a sequence of measures, associated to energy density of solutions of the parabolic Allen-Cahn equation, converges in the limit to a family of rectifiable Radon measures, which evolves by mean curvature flow in the sense of Brakke. A key role is played by a local almost monotonicity formula (a weak counterpart of Huisken's monotonicity formula) proved in [22], to get various density bounds for the lim…
The Allen-Cahn action functional is related to the probability of rare events in the stochastically perturbed Allen-Cahn equation. Formal calculations suggest a reduced action functional in the sharp interface limit. We prove in two and three space dimensions the corresponding lower bound. One difficulty is that diffuse interfaces may collapse in the limit. We therefore consider the limit of diffuse surface area measures and introduce a generalized velocity and generalized reduced action functional in a class of evolving measures. As a corollary we obtain the Gamma convergence of the action fu…
This paper presents a conditional convergence result of solutions to the Allen--Cahn equation with arbitrary potentials to a De Giorgi type $ \mathrm{BV} $-solution to multiphase mean curvature flow. Moreover we show that De Giorgi type $\mathrm{BV} $-solutions are De Giorgi type varifold solutions, and thus our solution is unique in a weak-strong sense.
Under proper hypotheses, we rigorously derive the Plateau angle conditions at triple junctions of diffused interfaces in three dimensions, starting from the vector-valued Allen-Cahn equation with a triple-well potential. Our derivation is based on an application of the divergence theorem using the divergence-free form of the equation via an associated stress tensor.
We aim to study the solutions of a fractional mesoscopic model of phase transitions in a periodic medium. After investigating the geometric properties of the interface of the associated minimal solutions, we construct minimal interfaces lying to a strip of prescribed direction and universal width.
We consider the Allen-Cahn equation $\partial_t u- Δu=u-u^3$ with a rapidly mixing Gaussian field as initial condition. We show that provided that the amplitude of the initial condition is not too large, the equation generates fronts described by nodal sets of the Bargmann-Fock Gaussian field, which then evolve according to mean curvature flow.
This paper presents a new partial differential equation to build Brakke's motion, which is a weak notion of mean curvature flow. We call the equation a modified Allen-Cahn equation abbreviated to MAC. After that we introduce its benefit: An improved estimate on the discrepant energy that means the equipartition of the first energy. This equation is obtained by rendering the parameter in Allen-Cahn equation time-dependent and adding a term like Z-transform. Furthermore, we mention the existence of a Brakke's motion through our MAC.
A description of the short time behavior of solutions of the Allen-Cahn equation with a smoothened additive noise is presented. The key result is that in the sharp interface limit solutions move according to motion by mean curvature with an additional stochastic forcing. This extends a similar result of Funaki in spatial dimension $n=2$ to arbitrary dimensions.
In this paper we study a model for phase segregation consisting in a sistem of a partial and an ordinary differential equation. By a careful definition of maximal solution to the latter equation, this system reduces to an Allen-Cahn equation with a memory term. Global existence and uniqueness of a smooth solution are proven and a characterization of the omega-limit set is given.
We define a (mean curvature flow) entropy for Radon measures in $\mathbb{R}^n$ or in a compact manifold. Moreover, we prove a monotonicity formula of the entropy of the measures associated with the parabolic Allen-Cahn equations. If the ambient manifold is a compact manifold with non-negative sectional curvature and parallel Ricci curvature, this is a consequence of a new monotonicity formula for the parabolic Allen-Cahn equation. As an application, we show that when the entropy of the initial data is small enough (less than twice of the energy of the one-dimensional standing wave), the limit …
In this note, we consider a nonlinear diffusion equation with a bistable reaction term arising in population dynamics. Given a rather general initial data, we investigate its behavior for small times as the reaction coefficient tends to infinity: we prove a generation of interface property.
We develop a new infinite dimensional gluing method for fractional elliptic equations. As a model problem, we construct solutions of the fractional Allen--Cahn equation vanishing on a rotationally symmetric surface which resembles a catenoid and have sub-linear growth at infinity. Moreover, such solutions are unstable.
We use the notion of first and second inner variations as a bridge allowing one to pass to the limit of first and second Gateaux variations for the Allen-Cahn, Cahn-Hilliard and Ohta-Kawasaki energies. Under suitable assumptions, this allows us to show that stability passes to the sharp interface limit, including boundary terms, by considering non-compactly supported velocity and acceleration fields in our variations. This complements the results of Tonegawa, and Tonegawa and Wickramasekera, where interior stability is shown to pass to the limit. As a further application, we prove an asymptoti…
