A characterization of variational convergence for segmentation problems (Q1355009)

The authors consider sequences of energy functionals on spaces of discontinuous functions (\(\text{BV}(I,{\mathbb{R}}^n)\) and \(\text{SBV}^p(I,{\mathbb{R}}^n)\), \(I\) being an interval). Roughly speaking, these functionals are sums of the ``Sobolev-type'' energy (called sometimes the bulk energy - see, e.g., I. Fonseca) and the so-called the ``jump-type'' energy; i.e., \[ {\mathcal F}_h (u) = \int_I f_h(t,u,u')\;dt + \sum_{t\in S_u} \vartheta_h(t,u^-(t), u^+(t)) , \] (\(S_u\) being the set of discontinuities of \(u\) ) and they appear in modelling of various problems in signal transmission, fracture mechanics, plasticity, phase transitions and so on. In the paper the \(\Gamma\) convergence of sequences of such kind of functionals is characterized by means of a suitable convergence of their integrands. Two cases are distinguished. In the simpler one where integrands do not depend on \(u\) and the limit problem is of the same type, the \(\Gamma\) convergence is characterized by the weak-* \(L^{\infty}\) convergence of the Fenchel conjugates of the integrands and appropriately defined \(\tilde \Gamma\) convergence of functions \(\vartheta_h(t,v)\). In the general case ``with dependence on \(u\)'', the ``jump part'' of energy density of the limit is determined by the combined effects of \(\{f_h\}\) and \(\{\vartheta_h\}\). A compactness result and an integral representation theorem for the \(\Gamma\) limit are also given.