Froth-like minimizers of a non-local free energy functional with competing interactions (Q358355)

The paper studies the approximate minimizers of a 1D non-local free-energy functional with competing interactions, including short-range ferromagnetic interactions and long-range antiferromagnetic interactions, by combining coarse graining methods and reflection positivity. The paper is focused on a free energy functional that arises in 1D Ising models with competing long range interactions at positive temperature in a specific mean field limit, known as Kac limit. After considering the 1D spin system described by the corresponding Hamiltonian, the authors obtain the nonlocal large deviation functional corresponding to the Hamiltonian. It is expected that the system develops a ``froth'' (or ``foam''). The main results of the paper are a characterization of the macroscopic structure of the foam in the considered problem and a proof that the profiles with energy close to the minimum of the above-mentioned nonlocal functional are ``essentially periodic'' and oscillate with an optimal modulation length of order \(\gamma^{-2/3}\), where \(\gamma\) is a small parameter. It is shown that the short range potential is nonlocal of range 1, while the long range is a positive superposition of exponentials of range approximately \(1/\gamma >> 1\). Namely the competition between the two effects induces the quasi-minimizers to form the froth or foam, they oscillate almost periodically by alternating intervals, where the profile is essentially equal to the positive solution of the self-consistency equation, to intervals, where it is essentially equal to the same solution but only with minus sign (these two solutions are degenerate minima of the local potential \(F\) which has double-well shape). The lengths of these intervals are almost the same and of approximate order \(\gamma^{-2/3}\), which is intermediate between 1 and \(1/\gamma\). The result is obtained by deriving estimates of the functional of interest from above and below in terms of a ``sharp interface'' functional with long range interaction which can be studied by exact methods (reflection positivity). The bounds are proportional to the size of the interval on which the functional is defined, and subdominant in \(\gamma\) with respect to the scale of the specific ground state energy (the result is a sort of ``\(\Gamma\)-convergence in infinite volume''). Before characterizing the shape of the quasi-minimizers of the functional of interest in the case, where the local potential \(F\) has double-well shape, a sharp interface counterpart of the functional is introduced and the key bounds that characterize its quasi-minimizers are reviewed. The investigation assumes that the quasi-minimizers have a shape essentially equal to the instanton in the vicinity of the transition point from the negative to the positive phase.