Local minimizer and De Giorgi’s type conjecture for the isotropic–nematic interface problem

In this paper, we investigate the structure of local minimizers for the isotropic–nematic interface based on the Landau-de Gennes energy. In the absence of the anisotropic energy, the uniaxial solution is the only local minimizer in 1-D. In 3-D, we propose a De Giorgi’s type conjecture and give an affirmative answer under a mild assumption. In the presence of the anisotropic energy with \(L_2>-\,1\) and homeotropic anchoring, the uniaxial solution is also the only local minimizer in a class of diagonal form in 1-D.     

Uniaxial versus biaxial character of nematic equilibria in three dimensions

We study global minimizers of the Landau–de Gennes (LdG) energy functional for nematic liquid crystals, on arbitrary three-dimensional simply connected geometries with topologically non-trivial and physically relevant Dirichlet boundary conditions. Our results are specific to an asymptotic limit coined in terms of a dimensionless temperature and material-dependent parameter, t and some constraints on the material parameters, and we work in the \(t\rightarrow \infty \) limit that captures features of the widely used Lyuksyutov constraint (Kralj and Virga in J Phys A 34:829–838, 2001). We prove (i) that (re-scaled) global LdG minimizers converge uniformly to a (minimizing) limiting harmonic map, away from the singular set of the limiting map; (ii) we have points of maximal biaxiality and uniaxiality near each singular point of the limiting map; (iii) estimates for the size of “strongly biaxial” regions in terms of the parameter t. We further show that global LdG minimizers in the restricted class of uniaxial \(\mathbf{Q}\)-tensors cannot be stable critical points of the LdG energy in this limit.     

Periodic minimizers of the anisotropic Ginzburg–Landau model

We consider the anisotropic Ginzburg–Landau model in a three-dimensional periodic setting, in the London limit as the Ginzburg–Landau parameter \({\kappa=1/{\epsilon}\to\infty}\) . By means of matching upper and lower bounds on the energy of minimizers, we derive an expression for a limiting energy in the spirit of Γ-convergence. We show that, to highest order as \({\epsilon\to0}\) , the normalized induced magnetic field approaches a constant vector. We obtain a formula for the lower critical field H _c1 as a function of the orientation of the external field \({h^\epsilon_{ex}}\) with respect to the principal axes of the anisotropy, and determine the direction of the limiting induced field as a minimizer of a convex geometrical problem.     

Dimension Reduction for the Landau-de Gennes Model on Curved Nematic Thin Films

We use the method of \(\Gamma \)-convergence to study the behavior of the Landau-de Gennes model for a nematic liquid crystalline film attached to a general fixed surface in the limit of vanishing thickness. This paper generalizes the approach in Golovaty et al. (J Nonlinear Sci 25(6):1431–1451, 2015) where we considered a similar problem for a planar surface. Since the anchoring energy dominates when the thickness of the film is small, it is essential to understand its influence on the structure of the minimizers of the limiting energy. In particular, the anchoring energy dictates the class of admissible competitors and the structure of the limiting problem. We assume general weak anchoring conditions on the top and the bottom surfaces of the film and strong Dirichlet boundary conditions on the lateral boundary of the film when the surface is not closed. We establish a general convergence result to an energy defined on the surface that involves a somewhat surprising remnant of the normal component of the tensor gradient. Then we exhibit one effect of curvature through an analysis of the behavior of minimizers to the limiting problem when the substrate is a frustum.     

A relaxed model and its homogenization for nematic liquid crystals in composite materials

We analyse a model for equilibrium configurations of composite systems of nematic liquid crystal with polymer inclusions, in the presence of an external magnetic field. We assume that the system has a periodic structure, and consider the relaxed problem on the unit length constraint of the nematic director field. The relaxation of the Oseen–Frank energy functional is carried out by including bulk as well as surface energy penalty terms, rendering the problem fully non‐linear. We employ two‐scale convergence methods to obtain effective configurations of the system, as the size of the polymeric inclusions tends to zero. We discuss the minimizers of the effective energies for, both, the constrained as well as the unconstrained models. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Variational Problems with a p-Homogeneous Energy

We investigate existence, uniqueness and positivity of minimizers or critical points for an energy functional which contains only p-homogeneous and linear terms, 1p-homogeneous part of the energy functional is that it be given by the p-th power of an equivalent, uniformly convex norm on the underlying Sobolev space. Finally, continuous dependence of minimizers on the energy functional is established.     

Existence of minimal energy configurations of nematic liquid crystals with variable degree of orientation

Summary We prove existence of minimizers of the functional recently suggested by Ericksen [8] for the statics of nematic liquid crystals. A set of necessary conditions for the minimizers and a monotonicity formula are also found.     

The cluster problem in multivariate global optimization

We consider branch and bound methods for enclosing all unconstrained global minimizers of a nonconvex nonlinear twice-continuously differentiable objective function. In particular, we consider bounds obtained with interval arithmetic, with the midpoint test, but no acceleration procedures. Unless the lower bound is exact, the algorithm without acceleration procedures in general gives an undesirable cluster of boxes around each minimizer. In a previous paper, we analyzed this problem for univariate objective functions. In this paper, we generalize that analysis to multi-dimensional objective functions. As in the univariate case, the results show that the problem is highly related to the behavior of the objective function near the global minimizers and to the order of the corresponding interval extension.This work was partially funded by National Science Foundation grant # CCR-9203730.     

A relaxation of the intrinsic biharmonic energy

The tension field τ(u) of a map u from a domain ${\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^m}$ into a manifold N is the negative L ²-gradient of the Dirichlet energy. In this paper we study the intrinsic biharmonic energy functional ${T(u) = \int_{\Omega}|\tau(u)|^2}$ . In order to overcome the lack of coercivity of T, we extend it to a larger space. We construct minimizers of the extended functional via the direct method and we study the relation between these minimizers and critical points of T. Our results are restricted to dimensions m ≤ 4.     

Symmetry Breaking and Restoration in the Ginzburg–Landau Model of Nematic Liquid Crystals

In this paper we study qualitative properties of global minimizers of the Ginzburg–Landau energy which describes light–matter interaction in the theory of nematic liquid crystals near the Fréedericksz transition. This model depends on two parameters: \(\epsilon >0\) which is small and represents the coherence scale of the system and \(a\ge 0\) which represents the intensity of the applied laser light. In particular, we are interested in the phenomenon of symmetry breaking as a and \(\epsilon \) vary. We show that when \(a=0\) the global minimizer is radially symmetric and unique and that its symmetry is instantly broken as \(a>0\) and then restored for sufficiently large values of a. Symmetry breaking is associated with the presence of a new type of topological defect which we named the shadow vortex. The symmetry breaking scenario is a rigorous confirmation of experimental and numerical results obtained earlier in Barboza et al. (Phys Rev E 93(5):050201, 2016).     

Films courbés minces ferromagnétiques

We consider a thin curved ferromagnetic film not submitted to an external magnetic field. The behavior of the film is described by an energy depending on the magnetization of the film verifying the saturation constraint. The energy is composed of an induced magnetostatic energy and an energy term with density including the exchange energy and the anisotropic energy. We study the behavior of this energy when the thickness of the curved film goes to zero. We show with Γ-convergence arguments that the minimizers of the free energy converge to the minimizers of a local energy depending on a two-dimensional magnetization. To cite this article: H. Zorgati, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 340 (2005).     

On global and local minimizers of prestrained thin elastic rods

We study the stable configurations of a thin three-dimensional weakly prestrained rod subject to a terminal load as the thickness of the section vanishes. By \(\Gamma \)-convergence we derive a one-dimensional limit theory and show that isolated local minimizers of the limit model can be approached by local minimizers of the three-dimensional model. In the case of isotropic materials and for two-layers prestrained three-dimensional models the limit energy further simplifies to that of a Kirchhoff rod-model of an intrinsically curved beam. In this case we study the limit theory and investigate global and/or local stability of straight and helical configurations.     

On center singularity for compressible spherically symmetric nematic liquid crystal flows

The paper is concerned with a simplified system, proposed by Ericksen [6] and Leslie [20], modeling the flow of nematic liquid crystals. In the first part, we give a new Serrin's continuation principle for strong solutions of general compressible liquid crystal flows. Based on new observations, we establish a localized Serrin's regularity criterion for the 3D compressible spherically symmetric flows. It is proved that the classical solution loses its regularity in finite time if and only if, either the concentration or vanishing of mass forms or the norm inflammation of gradient of orientation field occurs around the center.     

A new approximation of relaxed energies for harmonic maps and the Faddeev model

We propose a new approximation for the relaxed energy E of the Dirichlet energy and prove that the minimizers of the approximating functionals converge to a minimizer u of the relaxed energy, and that u is partially regular without using the concept of Cartesian currents. We also use the same approximation method to study the variational problem of the relaxed energy for the Faddeev model and prove the existence of minimizers for the relaxed energy ${\tilde{E}_F}$ in the class of maps with Hopf degree ±1.     

Uniform Lieb-Thirring Inequality for the Three-Dimensional Pauli Operator with a Strong Non-Homogeneous Magnetic Field

The Pauli operator describes the energy of a nonrelativistic quantum particle with spin in a magnetic field and an external potential. A new Lieb- Thirring type inequality on the sum of the negative eigenvalues is presented. The main feature compared to earlier results is that in the large field regime the present estimate grows with the optimal (first) power of the strength of the magnetic field. As a byproduct of the method, we also obtain an optimal upper bound on the pointwise density of zero energy eigenfunctions of the Dirac operator. The main technical tools are: (i) a new localization scheme for the square of the resolvent of a general class of second order elliptic operators; (ii) a geometric construction of a Dirac operator with a constant magnetic field that approximates the original Dirac operator in a tubular neighborhood of a fixed field line. The errors may depend on the regularity of the magnetic field but they are uniform in the field strength. Communicated by Gian Michele GrafSubmitted 31/08/03, accepted 28/01/04     

The semi-classical limit of large fermionic systems

We study a system of N fermions in the regime where the intensity of the interaction scales as 1 / N and with an effective semi-classical parameter \(\hbar =N^{-1/d}\) where d is the space dimension. For a large class of interaction potentials and of external electromagnetic fields, we prove the convergence to the Thomas–Fermi minimizers in the limit \(N\rightarrow \infty \). The limit is expressed using many-particle coherent states and Wigner functions. The method of proof is based on a fermionic de Finetti–Hewitt–Savage theorem in phase space and on a careful analysis of the possible lack of compactness at infinity.     

On a free boundary problem and minimal surfaces

From minimal surfaces such as Simons' cone and catenoids, using refined Lyapunov–Schmidt reduction method, we construct new solutions for a free boundary problem whose free boundary has two components. In dimension 8, using variational arguments, we also obtain solutions which are global minimizers of the corresponding energy functional. This shows that the theorem of Valdinoci et al. [41], [42] is optimal.     

W versus C local minimizers and multiplicity results for quasilinear elliptic equations

In this paper we show that the local minimizers of a class of functionals in the C¹-topology are still their local minimizers in . Using this fact, we study the multiplicity of solutions for a class of quasilinear elliptic equations via critical point theory.     

Local minimizers in micromagnetics and related problems

Let be a smooth bounded domain and consider the energy functional Here is a small parameter and the admissible function m lies in the Sobolev space of vector-valued functions and satisfies the pointwise constraint for a.e. . The induced magnetic field is related to m via Maxwell's equations and the function is assumed to be a sufficiently smooth, non-negative energy density with a multi-well structure. Finally is a constant vector. The energy functional arises from the continuum model for ferromagnetic materials known as micromagnetics developed by W.F. Brown [9]. In this paper we aim to construct local energy minimizers for this functional. Our approach is based on studying the corresponding Euler-Lagrange equation and proving a local existence result for this equation around a fixed constant solution. Our main device for doing so is a suitable version of the implicit function theorem. We then show that these solutions are local minimizers of in appropriate topologies by use of certain sufficiency theorems for local minimizers. Our analysis is applicable to a much broader class of functionals than the ones introduced above and on the way to proving our main results we reflect on some related problems. Received: 20 November 2000 / Accepted: 4 December 2000 / Published online: 4 May 2001