Lowersemicontinuity of energy clusters (Q4354110)

The paper deals with the existence of minimal energy configurations for clusters (i.e., partitions of a given domain in a finite number of regions) in the case when the density of the interfacial energy between the \(i\)-th region and the \(j\)-th region has the general form \(\varphi_{ij}(p)\), where \(p\) is the unit normal vector to the surface. Improving an example by \textit{L. Ambrosio} and \textit{A. Braides} [J. Math. Pures Appl. 69, No. 3, 307-333 (1990; Zbl 0676.49029)], the author shows the existence of an energy density satisfying the triangle inequality \[ \varphi_{ij}(p)\leq\varphi_{ik}(p)+\varphi_{kj}(p) \] such that \(p\mapsto\varphi(i,j,p/|p|)|p|\) is convex (both of these conditions are necessary for lower semicontinuity) and such that the associated energy on clusters is not lower semicontinuous, providing also a boundary value problem which has no solution. The final part of the paper contains an elegant proof, based on graph theory, of the fact that the triangle inequality and convexity are sufficient for lower semicontinuity if \(\varphi_{i,j}(p)=\theta(i,j)\psi(p)\) for suitable function \(\theta\), \(\psi\).