Unconditionally Maximum Bound Principle Preserving Linear Schemes for the Conservative Allen-Cahn Equation with Nonlocal Constraint

In comparison with the Cahn-Hilliard equation, the classic Allen-Cahn equation satisfies the maximum bound principle (MBP) but fails to conserve the mass along the time. In this paper, we consider the MBP and corresponding numerical schemes for the modified Allen-Cahn equation, which is formed by introducing a nonlocal Lagrange multiplier term to enforce the mass conservation. We first study sufficient conditions on the nonlinear potentials under which the MBP holds and provide some concrete examples of nonlinear functions. Then we propose first and second order stabilized exponential time differencing schemes for time integration, which are linear schemes and unconditionally preserve the MBP in the time discrete level. Convergence of these schemes is analyzed as well as their energy stability. Various two and three dimensional numerical experiments are also carried out to validate the theoretical results and demonstrate the performance of the proposed schemes.