A rigorous approach to the sharp interface limit for phase-field models of tumor growth

Abstract: In this paper we consider two diffuse interface models for tumor growth coupling a Cahn-Hilliard type equation for the tumor phase parameter to a reaction-diffusion type equation for the nutrient. The models are distinguished by the presence of two different coupling source terms. For such problems, we address the question of the limit, as the diffuse interface parameter tends to zero, from diffuse interface models to sharp interface ones, justifying rigorously what was deduced via formal asymptotics in [20]. The resulting evolutions turn out to be varifold solutions to Mullins-Sekerka type flows for the tumor region suitably coupled with the equation for the nutrient.