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Abstract The Allen‐Cahn equation satisfies the maximum bound principle, that is, its solution is uniformly bounded for all time by a positive constant under appropriate initial and/or boundary conditions. It has been shown recently that the time‐discrete solutions produced by low regularity integrators (LRIs) are likewise bounded in the infinity norm; however, the corresponding fully discrete error analysis is still lacking. This work is concerned with convergence analysis of the fully discrete numerical solutions to the Allen‐Cahn equation obtained based on two first‐order LRIs in time and the central finite difference method in space. By utilizing some fundamental properties of the fully discrete system and the Duhamel's principle, we prove optimal error estimates of the numerical solutions in time and space while the exact solution is only assumed to be continuous in time. Numerical results are presented to confirm such error estimates and show that the solution obtained by the proposed LRI schemes is more accurate than the classical exponential time differencing (ETD) scheme of the same order.
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This content will become publicly available on December 1, 2025
Low Regularity Integrators for the Conservative Allen–Cahn Equation with a Nonlocal Constraint
In contrast to the classical Allen-Cahn equation, the conservative Allen-Cahn equation with a nonlocal Lagrange multiplier not only satisfies the maximum bound principle (MBP) and energy dissipation law but also ensures mass conservation. Many existing schemes often fail to preserve all these properties at the discrete level or require high regularity in time on the exact solution for convergence analysis. In this paper, we construct a new class of low regularity integrators (LRIs) for time discretization of the conservative Allen-Cahn equation by repeatedly using Duhamel's formula. The proposed first- and second-order LRI schemes are shown to conserve mass unconditionally and satisfy the MBP under some time step size constraints. Temporal error estimates for these schemes are derived under a low regularity assumption that the exact solution is only Lipschitz continuous in time, followed by a rigorous proof for energy stability of the corresponding time-discrete solutions. Various numerical experiments and comparisons in two and three dimensions are presented to verify the theoretical results and illustrate the performance of the LRI schemes, especially when the interfacial parameter approaches zero.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2041884
- PAR ID:
- 10620751
- Publisher / Repository:
- Springer
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Scientific Computing
- Volume:
- 101
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 0885-7474
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Conservative Allen-Cahn equation Low regularity integrators Mass conservation Maximum bound principle Energy stability
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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