On the anisotropic Kirchhoff-Plateau problem (Q2167583)

It is well known that the classical Plateau problem, that is, to determine a simply connected minimal surface bounded by a given Jordan curve, was solved in the thirties by J. Douglas and T. Radó through different approaches. Nevertheless a significant extension of the Plateau problem was first introduced by \textit{R. Courant} [Acta Math. 72, 51--98 (1940; Zbl 0023.39901)] and later by \textit{H. Lewy} [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 37, 103--110 (1951; Zbl 0042.15702)]. By allowing boundaries of the searched minimal surface to vary freely on a predetermined manifold, instead of being a fixed curve, these authors opened new mathematical avenues. Further, new approaches came up, for nice surveys of more recent developments of the original problem, see [\textit{G. David}, Princeton Math. Ser. 50, 108--145 (2014; Zbl 1304.49083)], and [\textit{J. Harrison} and \textit{H. Pugh}, Plateau's problem: what's next'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1509.03797}]. The case of minimal surfaces spanned by inextensible but flexible wires, a query coupling Plateau's problem to Euler's Elastica, has been investigated by \textit{F. Bernatzki} and \textit{R. Ye} [Ann. Global Anal. Geom. 19, No. 1, 1--9 (2001; Zbl 1017.53011)]; and \textit{L. Giomi} and \textit{L. Mahadevan} [Proc. R. Soc. Lond., Ser. A, Math. Phys. Eng. Sci. 468, No. 2143, 1851--1864 (2012; Zbl 1364.53007)]. In this context, for the minimization purpose, one takes into account both the area of the spanning surface and the energy of the boundary. The object of the current paper is the Kirchhoff-Plateau problem, that deals with the case where the spanning boundary lays on the surface of an elastic loop, which is supposed to be thin enough to be taken as a Kirchhoff rod. The later concept is treated in [\textit{E. H. Dill}, Arch. Hist. Exact Sci. 44, No. 1, 1--23 (1992; Zbl 0762.01012)], in [\textit{S. Kawakubo}, J. Math. Soc. Japan 60, No. 2, 551--582 (2008; Zbl 1142.58012)] and in [\textit{S. S. Antman}, Nonlinear problems of elasticity. 2nd, revised and extended ed. New York, NY: Springer (2005; Zbl 1098.74001)]. A study of the problem in the isotropic case was investigated by \textit{G. G. Giusteri} et al. [J. Nonlinear Sci. 27, No. 3, 1043--1063 (2017; Zbl 1365.74085)], where only one filament was considered. The more general case of a system of linked rods was later handled by \textit{G. Bevilacqua} et al. [J. Elasticity 140, No. 1, 135--148 (2020; Zbl 1447.49020)]. The classical Plateau's problem in the anisotropic case was handled in [\textit{C. De Lellis} et al., Adv. Calc. Var. 12, No. 2, 211--223 (2019; Zbl 1416.49051)]. In the paper under review the anisotropic case of a system of linked rods is handled. The authors minimize the energy functional given by the sum of the elastic energy, the potential energy for the link and the anisotropic surface energy of the film. As for the isotropic Kirchhoff-Plateau problem the linking type of the system of rods as well as the non-interpenetration of matter for each rod are prescribed. By considering the lower semicontinuous envelope of the elastic energy, relative to the weak topology, in the energy functional the authors proves the existence of a minimal solution and show the existence of a minimal set in Almgreen sense (Theorem 4.1 ), see e.g. [\textit{F. J. Almgren jun.}, Ann. Math. (2) 87, 321--391 (1968; Zbl 0162.24703)]. Further, following the isotropic case, a dimensional reduction is carried out leading to the existence of a weak minimizing sequence in the more general context considered here (Theorem 5.1 and its corollaries).