A stabilized trace FEM for surface Cahn–Hilliard equations: analysis and simulations

Abstract

This paper addresses the analysis and numerical assessment of a computational method for solving the Cahn–Hilliard equation defined on a surface. The proposed approach combines the stabilized trace finite element method for spatial discretization with an implicit–explicit scheme for temporal discretization. The method belongs to a class of unfitted finite element methods that use a fixed background mesh and a level-set function for implicit surface representation. We establish the numerical stability of the discrete problem by showing a suitable energy dissipation law for it. We further derive optimal-order error estimates assuming simplicial background meshes and finite element spaces of order \(m \ge 1\). The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated through numerical experiments on several two-dimensional closed surfaces, confirming the theoretical results and illustrating the robustness and convergence properties of the scheme.