\(\Gamma \)-convergence of variational functionals with boundary terms in Stein manifolds (Q1688754)

A real-valued function \(\varphi:\Sigma\to\mathbb R\) from a smooth manifold \(\Sigma\) is said to be exhausting if \(\inf\varphi>-\infty\) and \(\varphi\) is proper, i.e., \(\varphi^{-1}(K)\) is compact for any compact set \(K\subset\mathbb R\). If a complex manifold \((\Sigma,J)\) admits an exhausting \(J\)-convex function \(\varphi\), then it is called a Stein manifold. If \(\Omega\) is a bounded open set in a Stein manifold \(\Sigma\) of complex dimension \(N=n+1\), with symplectic form \(\omega\) and \(\Omega=\{\varphi<c\}\) is a sublevel set of \(\varphi\), then its boundary \(M=\partial\Omega\) of real dimension \(2n+1\) inherits a natural contact structure \((M,\theta)\), where \(\theta\) is the restriction of the 1-form \(\xi\) to \(M\) which is the contraction of the symplectic form \(\omega\) along the Liouville vector field \(X_0\) that plays the role of the normal vector to \(M\). The kernel of \(\xi\) defines a distribution of hyperplanes \({\mathcal H}\) on \(\Omega\). If \(V:\mathbb R\to\mathbb R\) satisfies \(V(0)=V(1)=0\) and \(V>0\) in \(\mathbb R\setminus\{0,1\}\), then for \(\varepsilon>0\) and \(\lambda_\varepsilon>0\), the energy functional \(F_\varepsilon\) in \(L^1(\Omega)\) is defined as \(F_\varepsilon(u)=\varepsilon\int_\Omega f(y,Du(y))dy+\lambda_\varepsilon\int_MV(\text{Tr}\,u)d v_\theta\), where \(Du\) denotes the Riemannian gradient of \(u\) and \(dv_\theta=\theta\wedge(d\theta)^{N-1}\) is the volume element in \(M\) with respect to the contact form \(\theta\). In this paper, the authors consider a family of variational functionals \(F_\varepsilon\) defined by the sum of a Dirichlet-type energy associated with a sub-Riemannian structure in \(\Omega\) and a potential term on the boundary \(M\). They prove that the functionals \(F_\varepsilon\) \(\Gamma\)-converge to the intrinsic perimeter in \(M\) associated with its contact structure. The authors prove that if \(\varepsilon>0\), \(\lambda_\varepsilon>0\) with \(\lim\limits_{\varepsilon\to 0}\varepsilon\log\lambda_\varepsilon=\kappa\) for some constant \(\kappa>0\), and \(F_\varepsilon:L^1(\Omega)\to[0,\infty)\) is the functional, then (i)\, for a sequence \(\{u_\varepsilon\}\) such that when \(\varepsilon\to 0\), \(F_\varepsilon(u_\varepsilon)\) is bounded, \(\{\text{Tr}u_\varepsilon\}\) is precompact in \(L^1(M)\), and every cluster point belongs to \(BV_\theta(M,[0,1])\), (ii)\, lower bound inequality: for every \(v\in BV_\theta(M,[0,1])\) and every sequence \(\{u_\varepsilon\}\subset W^{1,2}_{\mathcal H}(\Omega)\) such that \(\text{Tr}\,u_\varepsilon\to v\) in \(L^1(M)\), there holds \(\liminf\limits_{\varepsilon\to 0}F_{\varepsilon}(u_\varepsilon)\geq F(v)\), and (iii)\,upper bound inequality: for every \(v\in BV_\theta(M,[0,1])\) there exists a sequence \(\{u_\varepsilon\}\subset W^{1,2}_{\mathcal H}(\Omega)\) such that \(\text{Tr}\,u_\varepsilon\to v\) in \(L^1(M)\), and \(\liminf\limits_{\varepsilon\to 0}F_{\varepsilon}(u_\varepsilon)=F(v)\).