Lower semicontinuity for the Helfrich problem (Q2196528)

The Canham-Helfrich energy has been introduced in the papers of \textit{P. B. Canham} [``The minimum energy of bending as a possible explanation of the biconcave shape of the human red blood cell'', J. Theor. Biol. 26, No. 1, 61--76 (1970; \url{doi:10.1016/s0022-5193(70)80032-7})] and \textit{W. Helfrich} [``Elastic properties of lipid bilayers: theory and possible experiments'', Z. Naturforsch. C. 28, No. 11--12, 693--703 (1973; \url{doi:10.1515/znc-1973-11-1209})]. It models the shape of blood cells and is defined as \[ W_{H_0}(f):=\int_{\Sigma}({\tilde{H}}-{H_0})^2d\mu_g\text{ for }f:\Sigma\to\mathbb{R}^3. \] The article deals with minimizing the Canham-Helfrich energy, shortly known as Helfrich energy. By setting $H_0 = 0$ and multiplying by $\frac{1}{4}$ one obtains the Willmore energy, $W_{\mathrm{Will}}$. The main result is a lower-semicontinuity estimate for the minimizing sequences with an arbitrary but fixed topology. Necessary results to obtain compactness for a minimizing sequence are shown in the second section of the article. A suitable formula for the first variation of the enclosed volume with respect to a smooth vectorfield is derived in the third section. In the forth section a two parameter diffeomorphism of $\mathbb R^3$ to adjust an error appearing in the graphical decomposition method of Simon is constructed and analysed. In the fifth section one uses the partial regularity method of Simon and proves the $C^{1,\beta}$-regularity. From here follows the lower-semicontinuity estimate. The paper ends with a section dedicated to auxiliary results.