We consider the stochastic thin-film equation with colored Gaussian Stratonovich noise in one space dimension and establish the existence of nonnegative weak (martingale) solutions. The construction is based on a Trotter–Kato-type decomposition into a deterministic and a stochastic evolution, which yields an easy to implement numerical algorithm. Compared to previous work, no interface potential has to be included, the initial data and the solution can have de-wetted regions of positive measure, and the Trotter–Kato scheme allows for a simpler proof of existence than in case of Itô noise.@en

We prove the existence of non-negative martingale solutions to a class of stochastic degenerate-parabolic fourth-order PDEs arising in surface-tension driven thin-film flow influenced by thermal noise. The construction applies to a range of mobilites including the cubic one which occurs under the assumption of a no-slip condition at the liquid-solid interface. Since their introduction more than 15 years ago, by Davidovitch, Moro, and Stone and by Grün, Mecke, and Rauscher, the existence of solutions to stochastic thin-film equations for cubic mobilities has been an open problem, even in the case of sufficiently regular noise. Our proof of global-in-time solutions relies on a careful combination of entropy and energy estimates in conjunction with a tailor-made approximation procedure to control the formation of shocks caused by the nonlinear stochastic scalar conservation law structure of the noise.@en