By a combination of geometrical and configurational analysis we study the properties of absolute minimal and equilibrium states of general Mumford-Shah functionals, with applications to models of quasistatic brittle fracture propagation. The main results concern the mathematical relations between physical quantities as energy release rate and energy concentration for 3D cracks with complex shapes, seen as outer measures living on the crack edge.
We review some classical results and more recent insights about the regularity theory for local minimizers of the Mumford and Shah energy and their connections with the Mumford and Shah conjecture. We discuss in details the links among the latter, the porosity of the jump set and the higher integrability of the approximate gradient. In particular, higher integrability turns out to be related with an explicit estimate on the Hausdorff dimension of the singular set and an energetic characterization of the conjecture itself.
We prove higher integrability for the gradient of local minimizers of the Mumford-Shah energy functional, providing a positive answer to a conjecture of De Giorgi.
This paper is the first part of an ongoing project aimed at providing a local minimality criterion, based on a second variation approach, for the triple point configurations of the Mumford-Shah functional.
In this paper it is shown that any regular critical point of the Mumford-Shah functional, with positive definite second variation, is an isolated local minimizer with respect to competitors which are sufficiently close in the L^1-topology.
In this paper we introduce a notion of unilateral slope for the Mumford-Shah functional, and provide an explicit formula in the case of smooth cracks. We show that the slope is not lower semicontinuous and study the corresponding relaxed functional.
We study the convex lift of Mumford-Shah type functionals in the space of rectifiable currents and we prove a generalized coarea formula in dimension one, for finite linear combinations of SBV graphs. We use this result to prove the equivalence between the minimum problems for the Mumford-Shah functional and the lifted one and, as a consequence, we obtain a weak existence result for calibrations in one dimension.
We consider adaptations of the Mumford-Shah functional to graphs. These are based on discretizations of nonlocal approximations to the Mumford-Shah functional. Motivated by applications in machine learning we study the random geometric graphs associated to random samples of a measure. We establish the conditions on the graph constructions under which the minimizers of graph Mumford-Shah functionals converge to a minimizer of a continuum Mumford-Shah functional. Furthermore we explicitly identify the limiting functional. Moreover we describe an efficient algorithm for computing the approximate …
We propose a $Γ$-convergent discrete approximation of the Mumford-Shah functional. The discrete functionals act on functions defined on stationary stochastic lattices and take into account general finite differences through a non-convex potential. In this setting the geometry of the lattice strongly influences the anisotropy of the limit functional. Thus we can use statistically isotropic lattices and stochastic homogenization techniques to approximate the vectorial Mumford-Shah functional in any dimension.
In this paper we present a minimality criterion for the Mumford-Shah functional, and more generally for non convex variational integrals on SBV which couple a surface and a bulk term. This method provides short and easy proofs for several minimality results.
We want to understand he concentration of damage in microfractured elastic media. Due to the different scallings of the volume and area (or area and length in two dimensions) the traditional method of homogenization using periodic arrays of cells seems to fail when applied to the Mumford-Shah functional and to periodically fractured domains. In the present paper we are departing from traditional homogenization. The main result implies the use of Mumford-Shah energies and leads to an explanation of the observed concentration of damage in microfractured elastic bodies.
In this paper we exhibit a family of stationary solutions of the Mumford-Shah functional in $\mathbb{R}^3$, arbitrary close to a crack-front. Unlike other examples, known in the literature, those are topologically non-minimizing in the sense of Bonnet \cite{b}. We also give a local version in a finite cylinder and prove an energy estimate for minimizers. Numerical illustrations indicate the stationary solutions are unlikely minimizers and show how the dependence on axial variable impacts the geometry of the discontinuity set. A self-contained proof of the stationarity of the crack-tip function…
We establish a new monotonicity formula for minimizers of the Mumford-Shah functional in planar domains. Our formula follows the spirit of Bucur-Luckhaus, but works with the David-Léger entropy instead of the energy. Interestingly, this allows for a sharp truncation threshold. In particular, our monotonicity formula is able to discriminate between points at a $C^1$ interface and any other type of singularity in terms of a finite gap in the entropy. As a corollary, we prove an optimal lower bound on the energy density around any nonsmooth point for minimizers of the Mumford-Shah functional.
We give an alternative proof of the regularity, up to the loose end, of minimizers, resp. critical points of the Mumford-Shah functional when they are sufficiently close to the cracktip, resp. they consist of a single arc terminating at an interior point.
We study global Mumford-Shah minimizers in $\R^N$, introduced by Bonnet as blow-up limits of Mumford-Shah minimizers. We prove a new monotonicity formula for the energy of $u$ when the singular set $K$ is contained in a smooth enough cone. We then use this monotonicity to prove that for any reduced global minimizer $(u,K)$ in $\R^3$, if $K$ is contained in a half-plane and touching its edge, then it is the half-plane itself. This partially answers to a question of Guy David.
We prove that if $(u,Γ)$ is a minimizer of the functional $$ J(u,Γ)=\int_{B_1(0)\setminus Γ}|\nabla u|^2dx +\H^1(Γ) $$ and $Γ$ connects $\partial B_1(0)$ to a point in the interior, then $Γ$ satisfies a point-wise $C^{2,α}$-estimate at the crack-tip. This means that the Mumford-Shah functional satisfies an additional, and previously unknown, Euler-Lagrange condition. ******* The previous version of the paper contained some mistakes, which has been fixed. More explanations/details has been added in Section 6.
We show that if (u;K) is a minimizer of the Mumford-Shah functional in an open set of R^3, and if x, K and r > 0 are such that K is close enough to a minimal cone of type P (a plane), Y (three half planes meeting with 120 degrees angles) or T (cone over a regular tetrahedron centered at the origin) in terms of Hausdorff distance in B(x; r), then K is C^1,alpha equivalent to the minimal cone in B(x; cr) where c < 1 is an universal constant.
We prove an $\varepsilon$-regularity theorem at the endpoint of connected arcs for $2$-dimensional Mumford-Shah minimizers. In particular we show that, if in a given ball $B_r (x)$ the jump set of a given Mumford-Shah minimizer is sufficiently close, in the Hausdorff distance, to a radius of $B_r (x)$, then in a smaller ball the jump set is a connected arc which terminates at some interior point $y_0$ and it is $C^{1,α}$ up to $y_0$.
We show that functions in $GSBV^p$ in three-dimensional space with small variation in $2$ of $3$ directions are close to a function of one variable outside an exceptional set. Bounds on the volume and the perimeter in these two directions of the exceptional sets are provided. As a key tool we prove an approximation result for such functions by functions in $W^{1,p}$. For this we present a two-dimensional countable ball construction that allows to carefully remove the jumps of the function. As a direct application, we show $Γ$-convergence of an anisotropic three-dimensional Mumford-Shah model t…
We give a more elementary proof of a result by Ambrosio, Fusco and Hutchinson to estimate the Hausdorff dimension of the singular set of minimizers of the Mumford-Shah energy (see [2, Theorem 5.6]). On the one hand, we follow the strategy of the above mentioned paper; but on the other hand our analysis greatly simplifies the argument since it relies on the compactness result proved by the first two Authors in [4, Theorem 13] for sequences of local minimizers with vanishing gradient energy, and the regularity theory of minimal Caccioppoli partitions, rather than on the corresponding results for…
We prove a homogenization result for Mumford-Shah-type energies associated to a brittle composite material with weak inclusions distributed periodically at a scale ${\varepsilon}>0$. The matrix and the inclusions in the material have the same elastic moduli but very different toughness moduli, with the ratio of the toughness modulus in the matrix and in the inclusions being $1/β_{\varepsilon}$, with $β_{\varepsilon}>0$ small. We show that the high-contrast behaviour of the composite leads to the emergence of interesting effects in the limit: The volume and surface energy densities interact by …
We show that if $(u,K)$ is a global minimizer for the Mumford-Shah functional in $R^N$, and if K is a smooth enough cone, then (modulo constants) u is a homogenous function of degree 1/2. We deduce some applications in $R^3$ as for instance that an angular sector cannot be the singular set of a global minimizer, that if $K$ is a half-plane then $u$ is the corresponding cracktip function of two variables, or that if K is a cone that meets $S^2$ with an union of $C^1$ curvilinear convex polygones, then it is a $P$, $Y$ or $T$.
A new necessary minimality condition for the Mumford-Shah functional is derived by means of second order variations. It is expressed in terms of a sign condition for a nonlocal quadratic form on $H^1_0(Γ)$, $Γ$ being a submanifold of the regular part of the discontinuity set of the critical point. Two equivalent formulations are provided: one in terms of the first eigenvalue of a suitable compact operator, the other involving a sort of nonlocal capacity of $Γ$. A sufficient condition for minimality is also deduced. Finally, an explicit example is discussed, where a complete characterization of…
In electrical impedance tomography, we aim to solve the conductivity within a target body through electrical measurements made on the surface of the target. This inverse conductivity problem is severely ill-posed, especially in real applications with only partial boundary data available. Thus regularization has to be introduced. Conventionally regularization promoting smooth features is used, however, the Mumford--Shah regularizer familiar for image segmentation is more appropriate for targets consisting of several distinct objects or materials. It is, however, numerically challenging. We show…
In this paper we introduce a new phase field approximation of the Mumford-Shah functional similar to the well-known one from Ambrosio and Tortorelli. However, in our setting the phase field is allowed to be a function of bounded variation, instead of an $H^1$-function. In the context of image segmentation, we also show how this new approximation can be used for numerical computations, which contains a total variation minimization of the phase field variable, as it appears in many problems of image processing. A comparison to the classical Ambrosio-Tortorelli approximation, where the phase fiel…
We consider in 2D the following special case of the Mumford-Shah functional $$ J(u, Γ)=\int_{B_1\backslashΓ} |\nabla u|^2 dx + λ^2 \fracπ{2} \mathcal{H}^1(Γ). $$ It is known that if the minimizer has a crack-tip in the ball $B_1$ (assume at the origin), then $u\approx λ\Im \sqrt{z}$ at this point. We calculate higher order terms in the asymptotic expansion, where the homogeneity orders of those terms appear to be solutions to a certain trigonometric relation.
Some Mumford-Shah functionals are revisited as perturbed area functionals in connection with brittle damage mechanics. We find minimizers "on paper" for the classical Mumford-Shah functional for some particular two dimensional domains and boundary conditions. These solutions raise the possibility of validating experimentally the energetic model of crack appearance. Two models of brittle damage and fracture are proposed after; in the one of these models the crack belongs to the set of integral varifolds. We have felt the necessity to start the paper with a preliminary section concerning classic…
We define a notion of quasi-static evolution for the elliptic approximation of the Mumford-Shah functional proposed by Ambrosio and Tortorelli. Then we prove that this regular evolution converges to a quasi-static growth of brittle fractures in linearly elastic bodies.
The paper is devoted to the study of quasi-static brittle crack evolution. We work under the following assumptions: a linear elastic body, with or without initial cracks inside, evolves in a quasi-static manner under an imposed path of boundary displacements. During its evolution cracks with unprescribed geometry may appear and/or grow. This is an alternative version of the published article [Bu3], containing an improved Mumford-Shah model based on the functional K2, a generalization of the integral J of Rice. Further information at http://irmi.epfl.ch/cag/buliga_bfrac.html or http://www.imar.…
This work is devoted to study the asymptotic behavior of critical points $\{(u_\varepsilon,v_\varepsilon)\}_{\varepsilon>0}$ of the Ambrosio-Tortorelli functional. Under a uniform energy bound assumption, the usual $Γ$-convergence theory ensures that $(u_\varepsilon,v_\varepsilon)$ converges in the $L^2$-sense to some $(u_*,1)$ as $\varepsilon\to 0$, where $u_*$ is a special function of bounded variation. Assuming further the Ambrosio-Tortorelli energy of $(u_\varepsilon,v_\varepsilon)$ to converge to the Mumford-Shah energy of $u_*$, the later is shown to be a critical point with respect to i…
Motivated by models of fracture mechanics, this paper is devoted to the analysis of unilateral gradient flows of the Ambrosio-Tortorelli functional, where unilaterality comes from an irreversibility constraint on the fracture density. In the spirit of gradient flows in metric spaces, such evolutions are defined in terms of curves of maximal unilateral slope, and are constructed by means of implicit Euler schemes. An asymptotic analysis in the Mumford-Shah regime is also carried out. It shows the convergence towards a generalized heat equation outside a time increasing crack set.
We consider a singularly-perturbed nonconvex energy functional which arises in the study of microstructures in shape memory alloys. The scaling law for the minimal energy predicts a transition from a parameter regime in which uniform structures are favored, to a regime in which the formation of fine patterns is expected. We focus on the transition regime and derive the reduced model in the sense of $Γ$-convergence. The limit functional turns out to be similar to the Mumford-Shah functional with additional constraints on the jump set of admissible functions. One key ingredient in the proof is a…
Let P be an hyperplane in R^N, and denote by dH the Hausdorff distance. We show that for all positive radius r < 1 there is an epsilon > 0, such that if K is a Reifenberg-flat set in B(0; 1), a ball in R^N, that contains the origin, with d_H(K; P) <epsilon, and if u is an energy minimizing function in B(0; 1)\K with restricted values on @B(0; 1)\K, then the normalized energy of u in B(0; r)\K is bounded by the normalized energy of u in B(0; 1)\K. We also prove the same result in R^3 when K is a epsilon-minimal set, that is a generalization of Reifenberg-flat sets with minimal cones of type Y a…
