Hölder continuity of weak solutions to the thin-film equation in $d=2$

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Hauptverfasser: Cornalba, Federico, Fischer, Julian, Kokavcová, Erika Maringová
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Cornalba, Federico
Fischer, Julian
Kokavcová, Erika Maringová
author_facet Cornalba, Federico
Fischer, Julian
Kokavcová, Erika Maringová
contents The thin-film equation $\partial_t u = -\nabla \cdot (u^n \nabla Δu)$ describes the evolution of the height $u=u(x,t)\geq 0$ of a viscous thin liquid film spreading on a flat solid surface. We prove Hölder continuity of energy-dissipating weak solutions to the thin-film equation in the physically most relevant case of two spatial dimensions $d=2$. While an extensive existence theory of weak solutions to the thin-film equation was established more than two decades ago, even boundedness of weak solutions in $d=2$ has remained a major unsolved problem in the theory of the thin-film equation. Due the fourth-order structure of the thin-film equation, De Giorgi-Nash-Moser theory is not applicable. Our proof is based on the hole-filling technique, the challenge being posed by the degenerate parabolicity of the fourth-order PDE.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_24809
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Hölder continuity of weak solutions to the thin-film equation in $d=2$
Cornalba, Federico
Fischer, Julian
Kokavcová, Erika Maringová
Analysis of PDEs
The thin-film equation $\partial_t u = -\nabla \cdot (u^n \nabla Δu)$ describes the evolution of the height $u=u(x,t)\geq 0$ of a viscous thin liquid film spreading on a flat solid surface. We prove Hölder continuity of energy-dissipating weak solutions to the thin-film equation in the physically most relevant case of two spatial dimensions $d=2$. While an extensive existence theory of weak solutions to the thin-film equation was established more than two decades ago, even boundedness of weak solutions in $d=2$ has remained a major unsolved problem in the theory of the thin-film equation. Due the fourth-order structure of the thin-film equation, De Giorgi-Nash-Moser theory is not applicable. Our proof is based on the hole-filling technique, the challenge being posed by the degenerate parabolicity of the fourth-order PDE.
title Hölder continuity of weak solutions to the thin-film equation in $d=2$
topic Analysis of PDEs
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.24809