Well-posedness and stability for the two-phase periodic quasistationary Stokes flow

Abstract

The two-phase horizontally periodic quasistationary Stokes flow in \mathbb{R}^{2} , describing the motion of two immiscible fluids with equal viscosities that are separated by a sharp interface, parameterized as the graph of a function f=f(t) , is considered in the general case when both gravity and surface tension effects are included. Using potential theory, the moving boundary problem is formulated as a fully nonlinear and nonlocal parabolic problem for the function f . Based on abstract parabolic theory, it is shown that the problem is well-posed in all subcritical spaces \mathrm{H}^{r}(\mathbb{S}) , with r\in(3/2,2) . Moreover, the stability properties of the flat equilibria are analyzed in dependence on the physical properties of the fluids.