Sharp threshold for a one-dimensional thin film equation in the supercritical case
Abstract
We study a one-dimensional thin film equation combining competitive effects of aggregation and repulsion, where repulsion is modeled by fourth-order diffusion and aggregation by backward second-order degenerate diffusion with exponent . Under natural regularity constraints, we prove that for every , there exists a unique (up to the mass-critical case ) nonnegative, radially decreasing steady state which coincides with the extremal function of the sharp Sz.-Nagy inequality and is simultaneously the global minimizer of the free energy. Using this variational characterization in the supercritical regime , we show that finite-time blow-up occurs for all initial data whose initial free energy lies below the positive threshold , provided the -norm of the initial datum exceeds that of . Conversely, if the -norm is below that of , the solution exists globally and its second moment diverges as . This sharp criterion significantly extends the previously known blow-up condition requiring negative free energy to a much wider class of initial data (see \cite{BP00}). Our results identify the steady state as the critical pivot linking variational structure to dynamical behavior, and provide a constructive method to determine blow-up versus global existence via an explicit -norm comparison.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2605.15634,
title = {Sharp threshold for a one-dimensional thin film equation in the supercritical case},
author = {Shen Bian},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.15634},
year = {2026}
}