Intermediate asymptotics of the capillary-driven thin-film equation

We present an analytical and numerical study of the two-dimensional capillary-driven thin-film equation. In particular, we focus on the intermediate asymptotics of its solutions. Linearising the equation enables us to derive the associated Green's function and therefore obtain a complete set of solutions. Moreover, we show that the rescaled solution for any summable initial profile uniformly converges in time towards a universal self-similar attractor that is precisely the rescaled Green's function. Finally, a numerical study on compact-support initial profiles enables us to conjecture the extension of our results to the nonlinear equation. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]