On energy minimizers of the diblock copolymer problem (Q1395977)

In this paper, the authors study the global minimizers \(u_\varepsilon\) of the energy functional \[ I_\varepsilon(u)=\int_0^1\left[ \frac{\varepsilon^2}{2}|u'|^2+W(u)+\frac{1}{2}|v'|^2 \right]dx, \] \noindent where \(\varepsilon>0\), \(W\) is a double-well potential, and \(v\) solves \[ -v''=u-m,\;v'(0)=v'(1)=0,\;\int_0^1vdx=0. \] This one-dimensional model represents the free energy of a di-block polymer molecule. A di-block polymer molecule is a linear chain consisting of two suitable chains made of different monomer units, respectively. In particular, here \(I_\varepsilon\) is defined on \[ X_m=\left\{u\in W^{1,2}(0,1)\Big|\int_0^1udx=m\right\} \] \noindent where \(m\in(0,1)\) is the mass ratio of the two monomer units. The authors introduce such a model, which is a modification of previously studied ones, in order to explain micro-phase separation phenomena, i.e., energy global minimizers developing a growing number of periodic oscillations. Indeed, they prove that, when \(\varepsilon\) is small, energy every global minimizer of \(I_\varepsilon\) is periodic with period of order \(\varepsilon^{1/3}\). Moreover, for \(\varepsilon\) small, \(I_\varepsilon\) has exactly either two or four global minimizers.