Existence of stationary solutions and local minima for 2D models of fine structure dynamics (Q2636869)

In this important paper the author seeks further understanding about the dynamics of fine structure created in a viscoelastic material with a non-monotone stress-strain relationship (for example, the appearance of microstructure in martensite). Here, the two dynamical systems (1) \(u_{tt}= div (\sigma (\nabla u) + \nabla u_t)\) and \(0=div(\sigma(\nabla u)+\nabla u_t)\), are considered. \((u(t)): \Omega \rightarrow \mathbb R\) is the deformation of the material, \(\Omega \subset \mathbb R^2\) is an open bounded domain, and \(\sigma:\mathbb R^2 \rightarrow R^2\) is the non-monotone Cauchy stress tensor for the material. For simplicity the author imposes homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions. An alternative hypothesis is that multi-dimensional dynamics are the same as one-dimensional dynamics, so that a solution converges to equilibrium as \(t \rightarrow \infty\). To confirm this hypothesis, a possible approach would be to prove that positive orbits are compact so that -- together with a Lyapunov function -- we get convergence to equilibrium as \(t \rightarrow \infty\). The author also manages to construct paths along which the energy strictly decreases. This implies that all equilibria are not asymptotically stable. However, the dynamics do not allow solutions to travel along these energy decreasing paths so the possibility of converging to equilibria as \(t \rightarrow \infty\) remains open.