Long-time stability analysis of an explicit exponential Runge-Kutta scheme for Cahn-Hilliard equations

Abstract

In this paper, we present a rigorous long-time stability analysis of a second-order explicit exponential Runge--Kutta (ERK2) method for the Cahn--Hilliard equation. By employing Fourier spectral collocation in space and a two-stage ERK2 scheme in time, we construct a fully discrete numerical method and establish an energy dissipation law for the original energy. The numerical solution is proven to be uniformly bounded in time in the discrete $H^1$ and $H^2$ norms, provided that the time step size is sufficiently small. An ${\ell }^{\infty }$ bound is then derived through a discrete Sobolev inequality. These bounds remove the typical a priori maximum-norm assumption required in previous energy-stability analyses and allow the energy dissipation criterion to be closed for the fully discrete scheme. Building on this uniform boundedness, we derive an optimal-order error estimate in the ${\ell }^2$ norm. The analytical framework developed here is general and can be extended to higher-order exponential integrators for a broader class of phase-field models.

arXiv comment34 pages