On the limits of periodic Riemannian metrics (Q1058132)

The authors deal with the asymptotic behaviour, as a parameter \(\epsilon\) tends to zero, of the infima of functionals depending on a vectorial function of a real variable and on its derivative. The infima are sought in the Sobolev space of vectors which are p-summable with its first derivative. In the first variable the integrands are assumed periodic, and in the second variable they are subjected to some properties of positivity and of continuity. In the framework of the \(\Gamma\)- convergence theory, it is proved that the limit, as \(\epsilon\) \(\to 0\), of the infimum of the functionals is equal to the minimum of a functional which does not depend on \(\epsilon\). An example is produced showing that, in the case of an integrand which is quadratic in the second variable, one has that the limit problem is not of quadratic form. Moreover, the energy integrals, for \(\epsilon >0\), are associated with Riemannian metrics, while the limit functional is not (although it is a functional with a Finsler metric). Therefore, it is proved that the space of Riemannian metrics is not closed in the space of Finsler metrics, with respect to the \(\Gamma\)-convergence of the energy integrals.