Abstract
We investigate the large time behavior of compactly supported smooth solutions for a one-dimensional thin-film equation with linear mobility in the regime of partial wetting. We show the stability of steady state solutions. Relaxation rates are obtained for initial data which are close to a steady state in a suitable sense. The proof uses the Lagrangian coordinates. Our method is to establish and exploit differential relations between the energy and the dissipation as well as some interpolation inequalities. Our result is different from earlier results because here we consider solutions with finite mass.