A minimization problem involving variation of the domain (Q4036092)

The paper discusses the problem of minimizing the total stored energy functional \[ E(u,v):=\int_ \Omega W\bigl(\nabla U(x)\{\nabla v(x)\}^{-1}\bigr)dx \] over the set of diffeomorphisms \(\{(u,v)\in C^{K,\alpha}(\overline\Omega)\times C^{K,\alpha}(\overline\Omega)| u=u_ 0\) on \(\partial\Omega\), \(\text{det }\nabla u_ 0>0\) in \(\overline\Omega\), \(\text{det }\nabla v=1\) in \(\overline\Omega\}\). Here \(K\geq 1\) is an integer, \(0<\alpha\leq 1\), \(\Omega\subset R^ n\) is a bounded regular domain and \(u_ 0\) is a given vector-function from \(C^{K,\alpha}(\overline\Omega)\). It is supposed that \(W\) is continuous and nonnegative and that there exists \(\lambda\in R\) and an \(n\times n\) matrix \(X_ 0\) such that \(\text{meas }\Omega \text{det }X_ 0=\text{meas } u_ 0(\Omega)\), \(W(X)-\lambda \text{det }X\geq W(X_ 0)-\lambda \text{det } X_ 0\) for all \(X\) \((X\) are \(n\times n\) matrices). The existence of minimizers of \(E\) is proved. The special case of \(W(X)=\| X\|^ r\) is investigated in more details.