Lower bounds for the energy of \(S^ 1\)-valued maps in perforated domains (Q1909260)

It is found a lower bound for the Dirichlet energy \(\int_G |\nabla u|^2\) over the class \[ C^1(\Omega, S^1)\cap C(\bigcup^n_{j= 1} \partial B\rho(x_j, S^1) \] under the restriction \(\deg(u, \partial B_\rho(x_j))= d_j\), \(j= 1,\dots, n\). Here \(\Omega= G\backslash \bigcup^n_{j= 1} B_\rho(x_j)\), where \(\rho> 0\), \(G\) is a given domain in \(\mathbb{R}^2\) and \(x_1,\dots, x_n\) (resp., \(d_1,\dots, d_n\)) are \(n\) distinct points in \(G\) (resp., \(n\) prescribed integers). Let \(\mu> 0\) be such that, for every \(j= 1,\dots, n\), \(\text{dist}(x_j, \partial G)\geq \max(\rho, 2\mu)\). Under these assumptions it is proven that \[ \int_G |\nabla u|^2\geq 2\pi\min \Biggl\{ \sum_{m= 1}^N\Biggl|\sum_{j\in J_m} d_j\Biggr|^2\Biggr\}\log (\mu/\rho)- C(d_1,\dots, d_n), \] where the above min is taken over all possible partitions of \(1,\dots, N\) into \(N\) disjoint subsets \(J_1,\dots, J_N\) \((1\leq N\leq n)\). This result is in connection with a fundamental estimate used by \textit{F. Bethuel}, \textit{H. Brezis} and \textit{F. Hélein} [``Ginzburg-Landau vortices'' (1994; Zbl 0802.35142)] in the study of the complex Ginzburg-Landau functional.