One dimensional phase transition problem modeling striped spin orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensates (Q1986498)

The authors introduce a model for vortex stripes in a two component Bose-Einstein condensate. The model involves two real-valued functions of a real variable, \(v\), the total density, and \(\varphi\), that determines what component is occupied by the condensate (through the value of term \(\sin\varphi\)). The authors study the relevant 1D energy functional \[ G(v,\varphi)=\frac12\int_0^1\Big(v'(x)^2+\frac1{2\varepsilon^2}(1-v(x)^2)^2\Big)dx+I_{\varepsilon,\kappa,\delta}(\varphi,v), \] with the first term being the celebrated Ginzburg-Landau (GL) energy functional, and the term \(I_{\varepsilon,\kappa,\delta}(\varphi,v)\) is an interaction energy involving \((v,\varphi)\) and the physical parameters \(\varepsilon,\beta,\kappa\). In the limit \(\varepsilon\to0_+\), the effetcive GL energy vanishes, and the effective minimizing \(v\) becomes \(1\), so that the foregoing model is approximated by the simpler energy functional \[ F_{\beta,\kappa}=I_{\varepsilon,\kappa,\delta}(\varphi,1)=\int_0^1\left(\varphi'(x)^2+\frac1{\beta^2}\sin^2\varphi(x)-\frac\kappa2\varphi'(x)\right)dx, \] with the new effective paramter \[ \beta= \frac{\varepsilon}{\sqrt{\delta}}\ll1. \] The authors analyze the energy functional \(F_{\beta,\kappa}\). Among other things, they determine accurate asymptotic expansions of the minimizing energy of \(F_{\beta,\kappa}\) and the corresponding minimizers, in the regime where \(\beta\) appraoches \(0\).