The Muskat problem with surface tension and equal viscosities in subcritical $$L_p$$-Sobolev spaces

In this paper we establish the well-posedness of the Muskat problem with surface tension and equal viscosities in the subcritical Sobolev spaces $$W^s_p(\mathbb {R})$$ W p s ( R ) , where $${p\in (1,2]}$$ p ∈ ( 1 , 2 ] and $${s\in (1+1/p,2)}$$ s ∈ ( 1 + 1 / p , 2 ) . This is achieved by showing that the mathematical model can be formulated as a quasilinear parabolic evolution problem in $$W^{\overline{s}-2}_p(\mathbb {R})$$ W p s ¯ - 2 ( R ) , where $${\overline{s}\in (1+1/p,s)}$$ s ¯ ∈ ( 1 + 1 / p , s ) . Moreover, we prove that the solutions become instantly smooth and we provide a criterion for the global existence of solutions.

Well-posedness of the Muskat problem in subcritical L p -Sobolev spaces

We study the Muskat problem describing the vertical motion of two immiscible fluids in a two-dimensional homogeneous porous medium in an L p -setting with p ∈ (1, ∞). The Sobolev space $W_p^s(\mathbb R)$ with s = 1+1/p is a critical space for this problem. We prove, for each s ∈ (1+1/p, 2) that the Rayleigh–Taylor condition identifies an open subset of $W_p^s(\mathbb R)$ within which the Muskat problem is of parabolic type. This enables us to establish the local well-posedness of the problem in all these subcritical spaces together with a parabolic smoothing property.

Mixing solutions for the Muskat problem with variable speed

We provide a quick proof of the existence of mixing weak solutions for the Muskat problem with variable mixing speed. Our proof is considerably shorter and extends previous results in Castro et al. (Mixing solutions for the Muskat problem, 2016, arXiv:1605.04822) and Förster and Székelyhidi (Comm Math Phys 363(3):1051–1080, 2018).

Weak Solutions to the Muskat Problem with Surface Tension Via Optimal Transport

Inspired by recent works on the threshold dynamics scheme for multi-phase mean curvature flow (by Esedoḡlu–Otto and Laux–Otto), we introduce a novel framework to approximate solutions of the Muskat problem with surface tension. Our approach is based on interpreting the Muskat problem as a gradient flow in a product Wasserstein space. This perspective allows us to construct weak solutions via a minimizing movements scheme. Rather than working directly with the singular surface tension force, we instead relax the perimeter functional with the heat content energy approximation of Esedoḡlu–Otto. The heat content energy allows us to show the convergence of the associated minimizing movement scheme in the Wasserstein space, and makes the scheme far more tractable for numerical simulations. Under a typical energy convergence assumption, we show that our scheme converges to weak solutions of the Muskat problem with surface tension. We then conclude the paper with a discussion on some numerical experiments and on equilibrium configurations.