Well-posedness of a parabolic moving-boundary problem in the setting of Wasserstein gradient flows

Abstract

We develop a gradient-flow framework based on the Wasserstein metric for a parabolic moving boundary problem that models crystal dissolution and precipitation. In doing so we derive a new weak formulation for this moving-boundary problem and we show that this formulation is well posed. In addition, we develop a new uniqueness technique based on the framework of gradient flows with respect to the Wasserstein metric. With this uniqueness technique, the Wasserstein framework becomes a complete well-posedness setting for this parabolic moving-boundary problem.