Second-order \(\Gamma\)-limit for the Cahn-Hilliard functional (Q5962889)

Let \(X\) be a metric space and let \[ \mathfrak{F}_{\varepsilon}: X \rightarrow \mathbb{R} \] be a family of functionals, with \(\varepsilon\) a positive parameter. Then a functional \(\mathfrak{F}^0: X \rightarrow \bar{\mathbb{R}}\) is said to be the \(\Gamma \)-limit of the family \(\mathfrak{F}_{\varepsilon}\) at a point \(\bar{u} \in X \) iff the following statements are fulfilled for each sequence \(\varepsilon\downarrow0\): (i) For each sequence \(\{u_n\} \subset X,\) with \(u_n\rightarrow \bar{u}\) we have \[ \liminf_{n\rightarrow\infty} \mathfrak{F}_{\varepsilon_{n}}(u_n)\geq \mathfrak{F}^0(\bar{u}). \] (ii) There exist a sequence \(\{u_n\} \subset X,\) with \(u_n\rightarrow \bar{u}\) such that \[ \limsup_{n\rightarrow\infty}\mathfrak{F}_{\varepsilon_{n}}(u_n)\leq \mathfrak{F}^0(\bar{u}). \] Then, it is denoted that \[ \Gamma-\lim_{\varepsilon\rightarrow0}\mathfrak{F}_{\varepsilon}(\bar{u})= \mathfrak{F}^0(\bar{u}). \] Furtheremore, one can say that for the family \(\mathfrak{F}_{\varepsilon}: X \rightarrow \bar{\mathbb{R}}\) has an asymptotic development of order \(k\) \[ \mathfrak{F}_{\varepsilon} = \mathfrak{F}^0 + \varepsilon \mathfrak{F}^1+ ... + \varepsilon^k \mathfrak{F}^k + o(\varepsilon^k) \] if there exist functions \(\mathfrak{F}^i: X \rightarrow \bar{\mathbb{R}}, ~ i = 1,\dots, k, \) such that the functions \[ \mathfrak{F}^i_{\varepsilon}:= \frac{ \mathfrak{F}^{i-1}_{\varepsilon}- \inf_X\mathfrak{F}^{i-1}}{\varepsilon} \] are well defined and \[ \mathfrak{F}^i_{\varepsilon}\rightarrow{\Gamma} \mathfrak{F}^i. \] Where \(\mathfrak{F}^0_{\varepsilon} = \mathfrak{F}_{\varepsilon}.\) In this paper, the authors study the asymptotic development of order 2 of the Modica-Mortola or Cahn-Hilliard functional \[ \mathfrak{F}_{\varepsilon}(u): = \int_{\Omega} W(u) + \varepsilon^2 |\nabla u|^2 dx,~~~ u \in H^1(\Omega), \] subject to the mass constraint \[ \int_{\Omega}u~ dx = m, \] where \(\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^n\) is an open bounded set and \(W\) is a double-well potential.