An efficient proximal-based approach for solving nonlocal Allen-Cahn equations

Abstract: In this work, we present an efficient approach for the spatial and temporal discretization of the nonlocal Allen-Cahn equation, which incorporates various double-well potentials and an integrable kernel, with a particular focus on a non-smooth obstacle potential. While nonlocal models offer enhanced flexibility for complex phenomena, they often lead to increased computational costs and there is a need to design efficient spatial and temporal discretization schemes, especially in the non-smooth setting. To address this, we propose first- and second-order energy-stable time-stepping schemes combined with the Fourier collocation approach for spatial discretization. We provide energy stability estimates for the developed time-stepping schemes. A key aspect to our approach involves a representation of a solution via proximal operators. This together with the spatial and temporal discretizations enables direct evaluation of the solution that can bypass the solution of nonlinear, non-smooth, and nonlocal system. This method significantly improves computational efficiency, especially in the case of non-smooth obstacle potentials, and facilitates rapid solution evaluations in both two and three dimensions. We provide several numerical experiments to illustrate the effectiveness of our approach.