This work considers the rigorous derivation of continuum models of step motion starting from a mesoscopic Burton-Cabrera-Frank (BCF) type model following the work [Xiang, SIAM J. Appl. Math. 2002]. We prove that as the lattice parameter goes to zero, for a finite time interval, a modified discrete model converges to the strong solution of the limiting PDE with first order convergence rate.

Recently, Huang, Lutwak, Yang & Zhang discovered the duals of Federer’s curvature measures within the dual Brunn-Minkowski theory and stated the “Minkowski problem” associated with these new measures. As they showed, this dual Minkowski problem has as special cases the Aleksandrov problem (when the index is 0) and the logarithmic Minkowski problem (when the index is the dimension of the ambient space)—two problems that were never imagined to be connected in any way. Huang, Lutwak, Yang & Zhang established sufficient conditions to guarantee existence of solution to the dual Minkowski problem in the even setting. In this work, existence of solution to the even dual Minkowski problem is established under new sufficiency conditions. It was recently shown by B ̈or ̈oczky, Henk & Pollehn that these new sufficiency conditions are also necessary.

The main purpose of the present paper is to investigate the nonlinear stability of viscous shock waves and rarefaction waves for the bipolar VlasovPoissonBoltzmann (VPB) system. To this end, motivated by the micromacro decomposition to the Boltzmann equation in Liu and Yu (Commun Math Phys 246:133179, 2004) and Liu etal. (Physica D 188:178192, 2004), we first set up a new micromacro decomposition around the local Maxwellian related to the bipolar VPB system and give a unified framework to study the nonlinear stability of the basic wave patterns to the system. Then, as applications of this new decomposition, the time-asymptotic stability of the two typical nonlinear wave patterns, viscous shock waves and rarefaction waves are proved for the 1D bipolar VPB system. More precisely, it is first proved that the linear superposition of two Boltzmann shock profiles in the first and third

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Two nonlinear diffusion equations for thin film epitaxy, with or without slope selection, are studied in this work. The nonlinearity models the Ehrlich–Schwoebel effect – the kinetic asymmetry in attachment and detachment of adatoms to and from terrace boundaries. Both perturbation analysis and numerical simulation are presented to show that such an atomistic effect is the origin of a nonlinear morphological instability, in a rough-smooth-rough pattern, that has been experimentally observed as transient in an early stage of epitaxial growth on rough surfaces. Initial-boundary-value problems for both equations are proven to be well-posed, and the solution regularity is also obtained. Galerkin spectral approximations are studied to provide both a priori bounds for proving the well-posedness and numerical schemes for simulation. Numerical results are presented to confirm part of the analysis and to explore the difference between the two models on coarsening dynamics.