  We present and analyze finite difference numerical schemes for the Allen
Cahn/Cahn-Hilliard equation with a logarithmic Flory Huggins energy potential.
Both the first order and second order accurate temporal algorithms are
considered. In the first order scheme, we treat the nonlinear logarithmic terms
and the surface diffusion term implicitly, and update the linear expansive term
and the mobility explicitly. We provide a theoretical justification that, this
numerical algorithm has a unique solution such that the positivity is always
preserved for the logarithmic arguments. In particular, our analysis reveals a
subtle fact: the singular nature of the logarithmic term around the values of
$-1$ and 1 prevents the numerical solution reaching these singular values, so
that the numerical scheme is always well-defined as long as the numerical
solution stays similarly bounded at the previous time step. Furthermore, an
unconditional energy stability of the numerical scheme is derived, without any
restriction for the time step size. The unique solvability and the
positivity-preserving property for the second order scheme are proved using
similar ideas, in which the singular nature of the logarithmic term plays an
essential role. For both the first and second order accurate schemes, we are
able to derive an optimal rate convergence analysis, which gives the full order
error estimate. The case with a non-constant mobility is analyzed as well. We
also describe a practical and efficient multigrid solver for the proposed
numerical schemes, and present some numerical results, which demonstrate the
robustness of the numerical schemes.
