Motion of discrete interfaces in low-contrast random environments

Technische Universität München, Boltzmannstrasse 3, 85748 Garching, Germany

Corresponding author: mruf@ma.tum.de

Received: 9 February 2017
Accepted: 10 October 2017

Abstract

We study the asymptotic behavior of a discrete-in-time minimizing movement scheme for square lattice interfaces when both the lattice spacing and the time step vanish. The motion is assumed to be driven by minimization of a weighted random perimeter functional with an additional deterministic dissipation term. We consider rectangular initial sets and lower order random perturbations of the perimeter functional. In case of stationary, α-mixing perturbations we prove a stochastic homogenization result for the interface velocity. We also provide an example which indicates that only stationary, ergodic perturbations might not yield a spatially homogenized limit velocity for this minimizing movement scheme.