Regularity of Minimizers of a Tensor-valued Variational Obstacle Problem in Three Dimensions
Zhiyuan Geng, Jiajun Tong
备注：
We added the detailed proof of the two inequalities (2.25) in the Appendix. Also, for the log potential, we proposed a weaker assumption (1.12) which is satisfied by the Ball-Majumdar bulk potential. We also modify the result (1.19) and the proof (Page 18) of the second part of Theorem 1.4 accordingly
Motivated by Ball and Majumdar's modification of Landau-de Gennes model for nematic liquid crystals, we study energy-minimizer $Q$ of a tensor-valued variational obstacle problem in a bounded 3-D domain with prescribed boundary data. The energy functional is designed to blow up as $Q$ approaches the obstacle. Under certain assumptions, especially on blow-up profile of the singular bulk potential, we prove higher interior regularity of $Q$, and show that the contact set of $Q$ is either empty, or small with characterization of its Hausdorff dimension. We also prove boundary partial regularity of the energy-minimizer.
In this paper, we study almost minimizers for the parabolic thin obstacle (or Signorini) problem with zero obstacle. We establish their $H^{σ,σ/2}$-regularity for every $0<σ<1$, as well as $H^{β,β/2}$-regularity of their spatial gradients on the either side of the thin space for some $0<β<1$. A similar result is also obtained for almost minimizers for the Signorini problem with variable Hölder coefficients.
We prove local $C^{0,α}$- and $C^{1,α}$-regularity for the local solution to an obstacle problem with non-standard growth. These results cover as special cases standard, variable exponent, double phase and Orlicz growth.
We prove continuity up to the boundary of the minimizer of an obstacle problem and higher integrability of its gradient under generalized Orlicz growth. The result recovers similar results obtained in the special cases of polynomial growth, variable exponent growth and produces new results for Orlicz and double phase growth.
We study almost minimizers for the thin obstacle problem with variable Hölder continuous coefficients and zero thin obstacle and establish their $C^{1,β}$ regularity on the either side of the thin space. Under an additional assumption of quasisymmetry, we establish the optimal growth of almost minimizers as well as the regularity of the regular set and a structural theorem on the singular set. The proofs are based on the generalization of Weiss- and Almgren-type monotonicity formulas for almost minimizers established earlier in the case of constant coefficients.
The repulsion strength at the origin for repulsive/attractive potentials determines the regularity of local minimizers of the interaction energy. In this paper, we show that if this repulsion is like Newtonian or more singular than Newtonian (but still locally integrable), then the local minimizers must be locally bounded densities (and even continuous for more singular than Newtonian repulsion). We prove this (and some other regularity results) by first showing that the potential function associated to a local minimizer solves an obstacle problem and then by using classical regularity results…
We establish an $\varepsilon$-regularity result for the derivative of a map of bounded variation that minimizes a strongly quasiconvex variational integral of linear growth, and, as a consequence, the partial regularity of such BV minimizers. This result extends the regularity theory for minimizers of quasiconvex integrals on Sobolev spaces to the context of maps of bounded variation. Previous partial regularity results for BV minimizers in the linear growth set-up were confined to the convex situation.
We consider Anzellotti-type almost minimizers for the thin obstacle (or Signorini) problem with zero thin obstacle and establish their $C^{1,β}$ regularity on the either side of the thin manifold, the optimal growth away from the free boundary, the $C^{1,γ}$ regularity of the regular part of the free boundary, as well as a structural theorem for the singular set. The analysis of the free boundary is based on a successful adaptation of energy methods such as a one-parameter family of Weiss-type monotonicity formulas, Almgren-type frequency formula, and the epiperimetric and logarithmic epiperim…
We establish partial regularity for the $ω$-minimizers of quasiconvex functionals of power growth. A first-order partial regularity result of $BV$ $ω$-minimizers is obtained in the linear growth case under a Dini-type condition on $ω$. Only assuming the smallness of $ω$ near the origin, we show partial Hölder continuity in the subquadratic case by considering a normalised excess.
In this paper we study the local regularity of almost minimizers of the functional \begin{equation*} J(u)=\int_Ω|\nabla u(x)|^2 +q^2_+(x)χ_{\{u>0\}}(x) +q^2_-(x)χ_{\{u<0\}}(x) \end{equation*} where $q_\pm \in L^\infty(Ω)$. Almost minimizers do not satisfy a PDE or a monotonicity formula like minimizers do (see \cite{AC}, \cite{ACF}, \cite{CJK}, \cite{W}). Nevertheless we succeed in proving that they are locally Lipschitz, which is the optimal regularity for minimizers.
We investigate properties of minimizers of a variational model describing the shape of charged liquid droplets. The model, proposed by Muratov and Novaga, takes into account the regularizing effect due to the screening of free counterionions in the droplet. In particular we prove partial regularity of minimizers, a first step toward the understanding of further properties of minimizers.
We prove a partial regularity result for local minimizers of quasiconvex variational integrals with general growth. The main tool is an improved A-harmonic approximation, which should be interesting also for classical growth.
We study the partial regularity of minimizers for certain singular functionals in the calculus of variations, motivated by Ball and Majumdar's recent modification [BM] of the Landau-de Gennes energy functional.
We revisit the question of regularity for minimizers of scalar autonomous integral functionals with so-called $(p,q)$-growth. In particular, we establish Lipschitz regularity under the condition $\frac{q}p<1+\frac{2}{n-1}$ for $n\geq3$ which improves a classical result due to Marcellini~[JDE'91].
We prove regularity properties in the vector valued case for minimizers of variational integrals of the form $$A(u) = \int_ΩA(x,u,Du) dx$$ where the integrand $A(x,u,Du)$ is not necessarily continuous respect to the variable $x,$ grows polinomially like $|ξ|^p,$ $p \geq 2.$
We prove higher differentiability of bounded local minimizers to some widely degenerate functionals, verifying superquadratic anisotropic growth conditions. In the two dimensional case, we prove that local minimizers to a model functional are locally Lipschitz continuous functions, without any restriction on the anisotropy.
Motivated by the construction of time-periodic solutions for the three-dimensional Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation in the case of soft and small ferromagnetic particles, we investigate the regularity properties of minimizers of the micromagnetic energy functional at the boundary. In particular, we show that minimizers are regular provided the volume of the particle is sufficiently small. The approach uses a reflection construction at the boundary and an adaption of the well-known regularity theory for minimizing harmonic maps into spheres.
We study optimal regularity and free boundary for minimizers of an energy functional arising in cohesive zone models for fracture mechanics. Under smoothness assumptions on the boundary conditions and on the fracture energy density, we show that minimizers are $C^{1, 1/2}$, and that near non-degenerate points the fracture set is $C^{1, α}$, for some $α\in (0, 1)$.
In this paper we consider minimizers for nonlocal energy functionals generalizing elastic energies that are connected with the theory of peridynamics \cite{Silling2000} or nonlocal diffusion models \cite{Rossi}. We derive nonlocal versions of the Euler-Lagrange equations under two sets of growth assumptions for the integrand. Existence of minimizers is shown for integrands with joint convexity (in the function and nonlocal gradient components). By using the convolution structure we show regularity of solutions for certain Euler-Lagrange equations. No growth assumptions are needed for the exist…
This paper is concerned with the variational problem for the elastic energy defined on symmetric graphs under the unilateral constraint. Assuming that the obstacle function satisfies the symmetric cone condition, we prove (i) uniqueness of minimizers, (ii) loss of regularity of minimizers, and give (iii) complete classification of existence and non-existence of minimizers in terms of the size of obstacle. As an application, we characterize the solution of the obstacle problem as equilibrium of the corresponding dynamical problem.
We study the regularity of minimizers to the composite membrane problem in the plane (ie given a domain omega and a positive number A, smaller than the measure of omega, minimize the first Dirichlet eigenvalue for the Schrodinger operator with potential equal to a fixed multiple of the characteristic function of a subset D of omega, with measure A). We show that for minimizers, the boundary of D is analytic.
We investigate minimizers defined on a bounded domain $Ω$ in $\mathbb{R}^2$ for singular constrained energy functionals that include Ball and Majumdar's modification of the Landau-de Gennes Q-tensor model for nematic liquid crystals. We prove regularity of minimizers with finite energy and show that their range on compact subdomains of $Ω$ does not intersect the boundary of the constraining set.
We study the regularity of solutions to a nonlocal variational problem, which is related to the image denoising model, and we show that, in two dimensions, minimizers have the same Hölder regularity as the original image. More precisely, if the datum is (locally) $β$-Hölder continuous for some $β\in (1-s,\,1]$, where $s \in (0,1)$ is a parameter related to the nonlocal operator, we prove that the solution is also $β$-Hölder continuous.
We prove that, given~$p>\max\left\{\frac{2n}{n+2},1\right\}$, the nonnegative almost minimizers of the nonlinear free boundary functional $$ J_p(u,Ω):=\int_Ω\Big( |\nabla u(x)|^p+χ_{\{u>0\}}(x)\Big)\,dx$$ are Lipschitz continuous.
We prove local Lipschitz regularity for bounded minimizers of functionals with nonstandard $p,q$-growth with the source term in the Lorentz space $L(N,1)$ under the restriction $q<p+1+p\,\min\left\{\frac 1N,\frac{2(p-1)}{Np-2p+2}\right\}$. This extends the recent work by Beck-Mingione to bounded minimizers under weaker hypothesis and is sharp for some special ranges of $p$, $q$ and $N$.
We investigate minimizers defined on a bounded domain in $\mathbb{R}^2$ for the Maier--Saupe Q--tensor energy used to characterize nematic liquid crystal configurations. The energy density is singular, as in Ball and Mujamdar's modification of the Ginzburg--Landau Q--tensor model, so as to constrain the competing states to have eigenvalues in the closure of a physically realistic range. We prove that minimizers are regular and in several model problems we are able to use this regularity to prove that minimizers have eigenvalues strictly within the physical range.
Fluid flows around a symmetric obstacle generate vortices which may lead to symmetry breaking of the streamlines. We study this phenomenon for planar viscous flows governed by the stationary Navier-Stokes equations with constant inhomogeneous Dirichlet boundary data in a rectangular channel containing a circular obstacle. In such (symmetric) framework, symmetry breaking is strictly related to the appearance of multiple solutions. Symmetry breaking properties of some Sobolev minimizers are studied and explicit bounds on the boundary velocity (in terms of the length and height of the channel) en…
In this paper we introduce a notion of almost minimizers for certain variational problems governed by the fractional Laplacian, with the help of the Caffarelli-Silvestre extension. In particular, we study almost fractional harmonic functions and almost minimizers for the fractional obstacle problem with zero obstacle. We show that for a certain range of parameters, almost minimizers are almost Lipschitz or $C^{1,β}$-regular.
The functionals of double phase type \[ \mathcal{H} (u):= \int \left(|Du|^{p} + a(x)|Du|^{q} \right) dx, ( q > p > 1, a(x)\geq 0) \] are introduced in the epoch-making paper by Colombo-Mingione for constants $p$ and $q$, and investigated by them and Baroni. They obtained sharp regularity results for minimizers of such functionals. In this paper we treat the case that the exponents are functions of $x$ and partly generalize their regularity results.
We study almost-minimizers of anisotropic surface energies defined by a Hölder continuous matrix of coefficients acting on the unit normal direction to the surface. In this generalization of the Plateau problem, we prove almost-minimizers are locally Hölder continuously differentiable at regular points and give dimension estimates for the size of the singular set. We work in the framework of sets of locally finite perimeter and our proof follows an excess-decay type argument.
We prove regularity results for the unique minimizer of the total variation functional, currently used in image processing analysis since the work by L. Rudin, S. Osher and E. Fatemi. In particular we show that if the source term $f$ is locally, respectively globally, Lipschitz, then the solution has the same regularity with local, respectively global, Lipschitz norm estimated accordingly. The result is proved in any dimension and for any (regular) domain. So far we extend a similar result proved earlier by V. Caselles, A. Chambolle and M. Novaga for dimension $N\leq 7$ and (in case of the glo…
In this paper, we study the relaxed energy for biharmonic maps from a $m$-dimensional domain into spheres. By an approximation method, we prove the existence of a minimizer of the relaxed energy of the Hessian energy, and that the minimizer is biharmonic and smooth outside a singular set $Σ$ of finite $(m-4)$-dimensional Hausdorff measure. Moreover, when $m=5$, we prove that the singular set $Σ$ is 1-rectifiable.
We consider a class of integral functionals with convex integrand with respect to the gradient variable, assuming that the function that measures the oscillation of the integrand with respect to the x variable belongs to a suitable Sobolev space W^{1;q}. We prove a result of higer differentiability for the minimizers. We also infer a result of Lipschitz regularity of minimizers if q > n, and a result of higher integrability for the gradient if q = n. The novelty here is that we deal with integrands satisfying subquadratic growth conditions with respect to gradient variable.
We prove the partial Hölder continuity for minimizers of quasiconvex functionals \[ \mathcal{F}({\bf u}) \colon =\int_Ω f(x,{\bf u},D{\bf u})\,\mathrm{d}x, \] where $f$ satisfies a uniform VMO condition with respect to the $x$-variable and is continuous with respect to ${\bf u}$. The growth condition with respect to the gradient variable is assumed a general one.
In this paper we present a new proof of the sufficiency theorem for strong local minimizers concerning $C^1$-extremals at which the second variation is strictly positive. The results are presented in the quasiconvex setting, in accordance with the original statement by Grabovsky and Mengesha (2009). The strategy that we follow relies on a decomposition theorem that allows to split a sequence of variations into its oscillating and its concentrating parts, as well as on a sufficiency result according to which smooth extremals are spatially-local minimizers. Furthermore, we prove partial regulari…
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 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 consider semi-stable, radially symmetric, and decreasing solutions of a reaction equation involving the p-Laplacian, where the reaction term is a locally Lipschitz function, and the domain is the unit ball. For this class of radial solutions, which includes local minimizers, we establish pointwise and Sobolev estimates which are optimal and do not depend on the specific nonlinear reaction term. Under standard assumptions we also prove the regularity of the corresponding extremal solution.
In this paper, we extend the related notions of Dirichlet quasiminimizer, $ω-$minimizer and almost minimizer to the framework of multiple-valued functions in the sense of Almgren and prove Holder regularity results. We also give examples of those minimizers with various branch sets.
We prove an a priori estimate for the second derivatives of local minimizers of integral functionals of calculus of variation with convex integrand with respect to the gradient variable, assuming that the function that measures the oscillation of the integrand with respect to the x variable belongs to a suitable Sobolev space. The novelty here is that we deal with integrands satisfying subquadratic growth conditions with respect to gradient variable.
In this paper we prove the Lipschitz regularity for local minimizers of convex variational integrals of the form \[ \mathfrak{F}( v, Ω)= \int_Ω \! F(x, Dv(x)) \, dx, \] where, for ${n > 2}$ and $N\ge 1$, $Ω$ is a bounded open set in $\mathbb{R}^n$, $u \in W^{1,1}(Ω, \mathbb{R}^N)$ and the energy density $F:Ω\times \mathbb{R}^{N \times n}\to \mathbb{R}$ satisfies the so called variable growth conditions. The main novelty of the paper is that we assume an almost critical regularity in the Orlicz Sobolev setting for the energy density as a function of the $x$ variable.
We prove the partial Hölder continuity on boundary points for minimizers of quasiconvex non-degenerate functionals \begin{equation*} \mathcal{F}({\bf u}) \colon =\int_Ω f(x,{\bf u},D{\bf u})\,\mathrm{d}x, \end{equation*} where $f$ satisfies a uniform VMO condition with respect to the $x$-variable, is continuous with respect to ${\bf u}$ and has a general growth with respect to the gradient variable.
In this paper we study the free boundary regularity for almost-minimizers of the functional \begin{equation*} J(u)=\int_{\mathcal O} |\nabla u(x)|^2 +q^2_+(x)χ_{\{u>0\}}(x) +q^2_-(x)χ_{\{u<0\}}(x)\ dx \end{equation*} where $q_\pm \in L^\infty(\mathcal O)$. Almost-minimizers satisfy a variational inequality but not a PDE or a monotonicity formula the way minimizers do (see [AC], [ACF], [CJK], [W]). Nevertheless we succeed in proving that, under a non-degeneracy assumption on $q_\pm$, the free boundary is uniformly rectifiable. Furthermore, when $q_-\equiv 0$, and $q_+$ is Hölder continuous we s…
We study existence, structure, uniqueness and regularity of solutions of the obstacle problem \begin{equation*} \inf_{u\in BV_f(Ω)}\int_{\mathbb{R}^n}ϕ(x,Du), \end{equation*} where $BV_f(Ω)=\{u\in BV(Ω): u\geq ψ\text{ in }Ω\text{ and } u|_{\partial Ω}=f|_{\partial Ω}\}$, $f \in W^{1,1}_0(\mathbb{R}^n)$, $ψ$ is the obstacle, and $ϕ(x,ξ)$ is a convex, continuous and homogeneous function of degree one with respect to the $ξ$ variable. We show that every minimizer of this problem is also a minimizer of the least gradient problem \[\inf_{u\in \mathcal{A}_f(Ω)}\int_{\mathbb{R}^n}ϕ(x,Du),\] where $\m…
