Numerical Simulation of a Space-Fractional Molecular Beam Epitaxy Model without Slope Selection

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce a space-fractional version of the molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) model without slope selection to describe super-diffusion in the model. Compared to the classical MBE equation, the spatial discretization is an important issue in the space-fractional MBE equation because of the nonlocal nature of the fractional operator. To approximate the fractional operator, we employ the Fourier spectral method, which gives a full diagonal representation of the fractional operator and achieves spectral convergence regardless of the fractional power. And, to combine with the Fourier spectral method directly, we present a linear, energy stable, and second-order method. Then, it is possible to simulate the dynamics of the space-fractional MBE equation efficiently and accurately. By using the numerical method, we investigate the effect of the fractional power in the space-fractional MBE equation.