Abstract

We study the effects of surface stress on the dynamics of a solid interface which evolves by surface diffusion. In the absence of surface stress, it is known that a flat interface is unstable for long wavelength perturbations and that in the nonlinear regime this instability develops into the formation of a sharp cusp. We compute the stability spectrum for a circular pore and for a flat interface considering the surface stress contribution, and analyze its effect on the process of formation of the cusp. Analyzing the length scales involved in the problem, we show that, within the context of continuum elasticity theory, surface stress does not suppress the singularity formation. © World Scientific Publishing Company.