Asymptotic limit of a vector-valued Allen-Cahn equation for phase transition dynamics

Abstract

In this paper, we study the asymptotic limit, as $\varepsilon\to 0$, of solutions to a vector-valued Allen-Cahn equation $$ \partial_t u = \Delta u - \frac{1}{\varepsilon^2} \partial_u F(u), $$ where $u: \Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^m \to \mathbb{R}^n$ and $F(u): \mathbb{R}^n \to \mathbb{R}$ is a nonnegative radial function which vanishes precisely on two concentric spheres. This equation, proposed and studied by Bronsard and Stoth [Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 1998] for the case $n=2$, serves as a typical example for a general reaction-diffusion equation introduced by Rubinstein, Sternberg, and Keller to model chemical reactions and diffusions as well as phase transitions. We establish that the sharp interface limit is a two-phase flow system: (i) The interface evolves by mean curvature flow; (ii) Within the bulk phase regions, the solution follows the harmonic map heat flow into $\mathbb{S}^{n-1}$; (iii) Across the interface, the $\mathbb{S}^{n-1}$-valued vectors on the two sides satisfy a mixed boundary condition. Furthermore, we rigorously justify this limit using the matched asymptotic expansion method. First, we employ the idea of ``quasi-minimal connecting orbits'' developed in Fei, Lin, Wang, and Zhang [Invent. Math. 2023] to construct approximated solutions up to arbitrary order. Second, we derive a uniform spectral lower bound for the linearized operator around the approximate solution, which relies on a novel application of the boundary condition. To achieve this, we introduce a suitable decomposition which can reduce the problem to spectral analysis of two scalar one-dimensional linear operators and some singular product estimates.