High-energy solutions for a phase transition problem. (Q1413205)

The authors consider the Neumann problem \[ \varepsilon^2u''-a(x)W'(u)=0,\quad u'(-1)=u'(1)=0, \] where \(\varepsilon>0\) is a small parameter, \(a(x)\) is a positive differentiable function and \(W(u)\) is a double well-balanced potential. A typical example is \(W(u)=\frac{1}{4}(1-u^2)^2\). The first result of the paper is that, given \(c>0\) small enough, there exist a sequence \(\varepsilon_n\to 0\) and corresponding solutions \(u_{\varepsilon_n}\) with energy \[ J_{\varepsilon_n}(u_{\varepsilon_n})=\int_{-1}^{1} (\tfrac{1}{2}\,\varepsilon_n^2u_{\varepsilon_n'} ^2+a(x)W(u_{\varepsilon_n}))\,dx=c>0. \] These solutions turn out to oscillate wildly with a number of zero of order \(\frac{1}{\varepsilon}\). The second and main result describes the asymptotic behavior of these solutions from their envelope. It is proved that there exists a limit envelope \(e(x)\) which satisfies a first-order equation. In case the energy level \(c\) is not to small it is also proved that this limit envelope is uniquely determined by the energy. Further, if the weight \(a\) has a unique local maximum, this uniqueness result still holds true for any positive energy level. The method of proof is based on variational arguments using the Liusternik-Schnirelman theory.