The anisotropic surface diffusion with elasticity in three dimensions via the Cahn-Taylor minimizing movement scheme

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce a suitable notion of flat solutions for the anisotropic surface diffusion equation with elasticity in three-dimensions, based on a minimizing movement scheme inspired by that introduced by Cahn and Taylor. Using this scheme, we prove the existence of classical solutions to the equation without using a curvature regularization term. Moreover we establish the consistency of the approximation method.