Microstructures, phase transitions and geometry (Q4208239)

This comprehensive survey article is focused on the author's own research, recording the most important results and most of trends in the area of nonconvex variational problems of the type: minimize \(\int_\Omega W(\nabla u(x))dx\) for \(u\in W^{1,p}(\Omega; \mathbb{R}^m)\) with \(\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^n\) a Lipschitz domain. Such problems typically describe equilibrium martensitic microstructure arising in crystalline elastic materials. Problems with finite number (especially two) point wells of the energy density \(W: \mathbb{R}^{m\times n}\to \mathbb{R}\) as well as orbit-shaped wells of \(W\) receive particular attention. Moreover, existence or nonexistence of exact minimizers, character of minimizing sequences, relaxation by quasiconvex envelopes as well as by gradient Young measures, and Gromov's convex integration method are addressed, too. Furthermore, the paper deals with singular perturbations which are used to model energy of surfaces between micro-regions of different phases; this enables to make a more detailed analysis of minimizing sequences and, in particular, to model domain branching. Finally, some tools finer than Young measures, questions about dynamical evolution of a microstructure, and some numerical methods are briefly touched. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0893.00028].