On the approximation of the elastica functional in radial symmetry (Q2388366)

The aim of the paper is to begin the analysis of the \(\Gamma\)-limit in \(L^1_{\text{loc}}({\mathbb R}^n)\), as \(\varepsilon\to0\), of the sequence of the functionals \[ {\mathcal F}_\varepsilon(v)=\begin{cases} \int_{{\mathbb R}^n}\left[m_\varepsilon(v)+\varepsilon^{-1}(\text{ eul}_\varepsilon(v))^2\right]dx &\text{if }v\in H^2_{\text{loc}}({\mathbb R}^n)\\ +\infty &\text{if }v\in L^1_{\text{loc}}({\mathbb R}^n)\backslash H^2_{\text{loc}}({\mathbb R}^n),\end{cases} \] where \[ m_\varepsilon(v)={\varepsilon\over2}| \nabla v| ^2+{1\over\varepsilon}W(v),\quad\text{ eul}_\varepsilon(v)=-\varepsilon\Delta v+{1\over\varepsilon}W'(v), \] and \(W\colon{\mathbb R}\to[0,+\infty[\) is a double well potential with two minima at \(\pm1\) with \(W(-1)=W(1)=0\). Once recalled the definition, for \(n=2\) and for every open set \(E\subseteq{\mathbb R}^2\) having compact smooth boundary, of the so-called elastica functional \[ F(E)=\int_{\partial E}(1+\kappa)d{\mathcal H}^1, \] where \(\kappa\) is the curvature of \(\partial E\) and \({\mathcal H}^1\) is the one-dimensional Hausdorff measure, and once denoted, for \(v\in H^1_{\text{loc}}({\mathbb R}^2)\), by \(\mu^v_\varepsilon\) the absolutely continuous measure defined on the Borel set \(B\) by \[ \mu^v_\varepsilon(B)=\int_B(\varepsilon| \nabla v| ^2+\varepsilon^{-1}W(v))dx, \] the result below is proved. Theorem: Let \(n=2\) and \(\{v_\varepsilon\}\subseteq H^2_{\text{loc}}({\mathbb R}^2)\) be a sequence of radially symmetric functions such that \(\sup_\varepsilon{\mathcal F}_\varepsilon(v_\varepsilon)<+\infty\). If \(\{v_\varepsilon\}\) converges to the characteristic function of a set \(E\) in \(L^1_{\text{loc}}({\mathbb R}^2)\), and \(\{\mu^{v_\varepsilon}_\varepsilon\}\) weakly* converges to a Radon measure \(\mu\), then the support of \(\mu\) consists of a finite number of cycles centered at the origin and contains \(\partial E\). Moreover, \[ c_0F(E)\leq\liminf_{\varepsilon\to0}{\mathcal F}_\varepsilon(v_\varepsilon), \] where \(c_0\) is the constant appearing in the asymptotic analysis of the Modica-Mortola functional. Some generalizations to the radially symmetric case in higher space dimension are deduced as well.