Classical solutions in Hölder and Sobolev spaces for the thin film equation

Series
PDE Seminar
Time
Tuesday, March 10, 2009 - 3:05pm for 1.5 hours (actually 80 minutes)
Location
Skiles 255
Speaker
Hans Knüpfer – Courant Institute, New York
Organizer
Michael Westdickenberg
We consider the the following fourth order degenerate parabolic equation h_t + (hh_xxx)_x = 0. The equation arises in the lubrication approximation regime, describing the spreading of a thin film liquid with height profile h >= 0 on a plate. We consider the equation as free boundary problem, defined on its positivity set. We address existence and regularity of classical solutions in weighted Hölder and Sobolev spaces.