A sufficient integral condition for local regularity of solutions to the surface growth model

TL;DR

This paper establishes a new integral condition ensuring local regularity of solutions to a surface growth model, paralleling regularity criteria known for the Navier-Stokes equations, thus advancing understanding of fourth order PDEs.

Contribution

It introduces a sufficient integral condition involving the gradient of the solution that guarantees smoothness, extending regularity theory for the surface growth model.

Findings

Weak solutions are smooth if the Serrin condition on $u_x$ is met.

The regularity criterion applies under specific integrability conditions on $u_x$.

The results draw parallels with regularity criteria for Navier-Stokes equations.

Abstract

The surface growth model, $u_t + u_{xxxx} + \partial_{xx} u_x^2 =0$, is a one-dimensional fourth order equation, which shares a number of striking similarities with the three-dimensional incompressible Navier--Stokes equations, including the results regarding existence and uniqueness of solutions and the partial regularity theory. Here we show that a weak solution of this equation is smooth on a space-time cylinder $Q$ if the Serrin condition $u_x\in L^{q'}L^q (Q)$ is satisfied, where $q,q'\in [1,\infty ]$ are such that either $1/q+4/q'<1$ or $1/q+4/q'=1$, $q'<\infty$.