Publication 13-CNA-006
Spectra of Functionalized Operators arising from Hypersurfaces
Gurgen Hayrapetyan
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
ghayrap@andrew.cmu.edu
Keith Promislow
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI, USA
kpromisl@math.msu.edu
Abstract: Functionalized energies, such as the Functionalized Cahn-Hilliard, model phase separation in amphiphilic systems, in which interface production is limited by competition for surfactant phase, which wets the interface. This is in contrast to classical phase-separating energies, such as the Cahn-Hilliard, in which interfacial area is energetically penalized. In binary amphiphilic mixtures, interfaces are characterized not by single-layers, which separate domains of phase $A$ from those of phase $B$ via a heteroclinic connection, but by bilayers, which divide the domain of the dominant phase, $A$, via thin layers of phase $B$ formed by homoclinic connections. Evaluating the second variation of the Functionalized energy at a bilayer interface yields a functionalized operator. We characterize the center-unstable spectra of functionalized operators and obtain resolvent estimates to the operators associated with gradient flows of the Functionalized energies. This is an essential step to a rigorous reduction to a sharp-interface limit.
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