Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2017/iii/paper-344/2/e/solution

Use the intended regular scaling ansatz: , and , with , . Relative to the drag magnitude , the two inertial contributions obey
Thus both inertial-to-drag ratios tend to zero at large , whatever the positive growth exponent; for the leading acceleration term vanishes identically. The long-time drag-limited hydrodynamic coarsening balance is therefore
so
The leading law is independent of mass density. Within the drag-capillary reduction, finite initial data give .
The derivative hypotheses are important: bare does not justify differentiating an asymptotic equivalence. For instance, is smooth and increasing, with , but is not small compared with . This is a counterexample to an inference from the bare asymptotic relation, not a solution of the coarsening equation. The physical claim uses the regular self-similar power law, for which the ratio calculation above applies.
This conclusion concerns the model's advective drag-capillary channel. Diffusive Ostwald ripening can also have a growth exponent; equality of exponents does not establish that diffusion is negligible. If it is retained, the prefactor and crossover function may also depend on order-parameter mobility, and one must compare transport mechanisms rather than infer the mechanism from the exponent alone.

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