Global existence and stability for the modified Mullins–Sekerka and surface diffusion flow

<abstract><p>In this survey we present the state of the art about the asymptotic behavior and stability of the <italic>modified Mullins</italic>–<italic>Sekerka flow</italic> and the <italic>surface diffusion flow</italic> of smooth sets, mainly due to E. Acerbi, N. Fusco, V. Julin and M. Morini. First we discuss in detail the properties of the nonlocal Area functional under a volume constraint, of which the two flows are the gradient flow with respect to suitable norms, in particular, we define the <italic>strict stability</italic> property for a critical set of such functional and we show that it is a necessary and sufficient condition for minimality under $ W^{2, p} $–perturbations, holding in any dimension. Then, we show that, in dimensions two and three, for initial sets sufficiently "close" to a smooth <italic>strictly stable critical</italic> set $ E $, both flows exist for all positive times and asymptotically "converge" to a translate of $ E $.</p></abstract>

On the Isoperimetric Inequality and Surface Diffusion Flow for Multiply Winding Curves

In this paper we establish a general form of the isoperimetric inequality for immersed closed curves (possibly non-convex) in the plane under rotational symmetry. As an application, we obtain a global existence result for the surface diffusion flow, providing that an initial curve is $$H^2$$ H 2 -close to a multiply covered circle and is sufficiently rotationally symmetric.

On the Surface Diffusion Flow with Triple Junctions in Higher Space Dimensions

We show short time existence for the evolution of triple junction clusters driven by the surface diffusion flow. On the triple line we use the boundary conditions derived by Garcke and Novick-Cohen as the singular limit of a Cahn-Hilliard equation with degenerated mobility. These conditions are concurrency of the triple junction, angle conditions between the hypersurfaces, continuity of the chemical potentials and a flux-balance. For the existence analysis we first write the geometric problem over a fixed reference surface and then use for the resulting analytic problem an approach in a parabolic Hölder setting.