Convergence of the Allen--Cahn equation with a nonlinear Robin boundary condition to mean curvature flow with contact angle close to 90°

This paper is concerned with the sharp interface limit for the Allen--Cahn equation with a nonlinear Robin boundary condition in a bounded smooth domain Ω⊂\R2. We assume that a diffuse interface already has developed and that it is in contact with the boundary ∂Ω. The boundary condition is designed in such a way that the limit problem is given by the mean curvature flow with constant α-contact angle. For α close to 90° we prove a local in time convergence result for well-prepared initial data for times when a smooth solution to the limit problem exists. Based on the latter we construct a suitable curvilinear coordinate system and carry out a rigorous asymptotic expansion for the Allen--Cahn equation with the nonlinear Robin boundary condition. Moreover, we show a spectral estimate for the corresponding linearized Allen--Cahn operator and with its aid we derive strong norm estimates for the difference of the exact and approximate solutions using a Gronwall-type argument.