On Ericksen's model for liquid crystals (Q1336080)

The paper deals with the regularity of local minimizers of functionals of the form \[ F(s,u)= \int_ \Omega W(s,u, \nabla s, \nabla u)dx, \qquad s(x)\in \mathbb{R}, \quad u(x)\in \mathbb{S}^ 2 \] where \(\Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^ 3\) is a bounded open set with Lipschitz boundary. This functional has been recently proposed by Ericksen in the framework of a new mathematical model of liquid crystals. The function \(s\in (-1/2,1)\) measures the microscopical order of the crystal and \(u\) is the optic axis. For some choices of the physical constants the functional reduces to \[ W(s,\nabla s,\nabla u)= s^ 2|\nabla u|^ 2+k \nabla s|^ 2. \] Existence of minimizers, with Dirichlet or Neumann conditions, can be achieved by minimizing \(F\) in the class of functions \((u,s)\) such that \(s\in H^ 1 (\Omega)\) and \(su\in H^ 1 (\Omega, \mathbb{R}^ 3)\). The main result of the paper is the Hölder continuity of local minimizers.