arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Laurent Bétermin.
We consider two-dimensional zero-temperature systems of $N$ particles to which we associate an energy of the form $$ \mathcal{E}[V](X):=\sum_{1\le i \sqrt{2}$, in which case ${\bar{\mathcal E}_{\mathrm{sq}}[V]}=-4$. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first proof of crystallization to the square lattice for a two-body interaction energy.
We investigate the minimization of the energy per point $E\_f$ among $d$-dimensional Bravais lattices, depending on the choice of pairwise potential equal to a radially symmetric function $f(|x|^2)$. We formulate criteria for minimality and non-minimality of some lattices for $E\_f$ at fixed scale based on the sign of the inverse Laplace transform of $f$ when $f$ is a superposition of exponentials, beyond the class of completely monotone functions. We also construct a family of non-completely monotone functions having the triangular lattice as the unique minimizer of $E\_f$ at any scale. For Lennard-Jones type potentials, we reduce the minimization problem among all Bravais lattices to a minimization over the smaller space of unit-density lattices and we establish a link to the maximum kissing problem. New numerical evidence for the optimality of particular lattices for all the exponents are also given. We finally design one-well potentials $f$ such that the square lattice has lower energy $E\_f$ than the triangular one. Many open questions are also presented.
We investigate the local and global optimality of the triangular, square, simple cubic, face-centred-cubic (FCC), body-centred-cubic (BCC) lattices and the hexagonal-close-packing (HCP) structure for a potential energy per point generated by a Morse potential with parameters $(α,r_0)$. The optimality of the triangular lattice is proved in dimension 2 in an interval of densities. Furthermore, a complete numerical investigation is performed for the minimization of the energy with respect to the density. In dimension 3, the local optimality of the simple cubic, FCC and BCC lattices is numerically studied. We also show that the square, triangular, cubic, FCC and BCC lattices are the only Bravais lattices in dimensions 2 and 3 being critical points of a large class of lattice energies (including the one studied in this paper) in some open intervals of densities, as we observe for the Lennard-Jones and the Morse potential lattice energies. Finally, we state a conjecture about the global minimizer for the 3d energy that exhibits a surprising transition from BCC, FCC to HCP as $α$ increases. Moreover, we compare the values of $α$ found experimentally for metals and rare-gas crystals with the expected lattice ground-state structure given by our numerical investigation/conjecture. Only in a few cases does the known ground-state crystal structure match the minimizer we find for the expected value of $α$. Our conclusion is that the pairwise interaction model with Morse potential and fixed $α$ is not adapted to describe metals and rare-gas crystals if we want to take into consideration that the lattice structure we find in nature is the ground-state of the associated potential energy.
In this paper, we focus on finite Bravais lattice energies per point in two dimensions. We compute the first and second derivatives of these energies. We prove that the Hessian at the square and the triangular lattice are diagonal and we give simple sufficient conditions for the local minimality of these lattices. Furthermore, we apply our result to Lennard--Jones type interacting potentials that appear to be accurate in many physical and biological models. The goal of this investigation is to understand how the minimum of the Lennard--Jones lattice energy varies with respect to the density of the points. Considering the lattices of fixed area A, we find the maximal open set to which A must belong so that the triangular lattice is a minimizer (resp. a maximizer) among lattices of area A. Similarly, we find the maximal open set to which A must belong so that the square lattice is a minimizer (resp. a saddle point). Finally, we present a complete conjecture, based on numerical investigations and rigorous results among rhombic and rectangular lattices, for the minimality of the classical Lennard--Jones energy per point with respect to its area. In particular, we prove that the minimizer is a rectangular lattice if the area is sufficiently large.
We study the problem for the optimal charge distribution on the sites of a fixed Bravais lattice. In particular, we prove Born's conjecture about the optimality of the rock-salt alternate distribution of charges on a cubic lattice (and more generally on a d-dimensional orthorhombic lattice). Furthermore, we study this problem on the two-dimensional triangular lattice and we prove the optimality of a two-component honeycomb distribution of charges. The results holds for a class of completely monotone interaction potentials which includes Coulomb type interactions. In a more general setting, we derive a connection between the optimal charge problem and a minimization problem for the translated lattice theta function.
We study the Hamiltonian of a two-dimensional log-gas with a confining potential $V$ satisfying the weak growth assumption -- $V$ is of the same order than $2\log|x|$ near infinity -- considered by Hardy and Kuijlaars [J. Approx. Theory, 170(0) : 44-58, 2013]. We prove an asymptotic expansion, as the number $n$ of points goes to infinity, for the minimum of this Hamiltonian using the Gamma-Convergence method of Sandier and Serfaty [Ann. Proba., to appear, 2015]. We show that the asymptotic expansion as $n\to +\infty$ of the minimal logarithmic energy of $n$ points on the unit sphere in $\mathbb{R}^3$ has a term of order $n$ thus proving a long standing conjecture of Rakhmanov, Saff and Zhou [Math. Res. Letters, 1:647-662, 1994]. Finally we prove the equivalence between the conjecture of Brauchart, Hardin and Saff [Contemp. Math., 578:31-61,2012] about the value of this term and the conjecture of Sandier and Serfaty [Comm. Math. Phys., 313(3):635-743, 2012] about the minimality of the triangular lattice for a "renormalized energy" $W$ among configurations of fixed asymptotic density.
We investigate lattice energies for radially symmetric, spatially extended particles interacting via a radial potential and arranged on the sites of a two-dimensional Bravais lattice. We show the global minimality of the triangular lattice among Bravais lattices of fixed density in two cases: In the first case, the distribution of mass is sufficiently concentrated around the lattice points, and the mass concentration depends on the density we have fixed. In the second case, both interacting potential and density of the distribution of mass are described by completely monotone functions in which case the optimality holds at any fixed density.
We study the local optimality of Simple Cubic, Body-Centred-Cubic and Face-Centred-Cubic lattices among Bravais lattices of fixed density for some finite energy per point. Following the work of Ennola [Math. Proc. Cambridge, 60:855--875, 1964], we prove that these lattices are critical points of all the energies, we write the second derivatives in a simple way and we investigate the local optimality of these lattices for the theta function and the Lennard-Jones-type energies. In particular, we prove the local minimality of the FCC lattice (resp. BCC lattice) for large enough (resp. small enough) values of its scaling parameter and we also prove the fact that the simple cubic lattice is a saddle point of the energy. Furthermore, we prove the local minimality of the FCC and the BCC lattices at high density (with an optimal explicit bound) and its local maximality at low density in the Lennard-Jones-type potential case. We then show the local minimality of FCC and BCC lattices among all the Bravais lattices (without a density constraint). The largest possible open interval of density's values where the Simple Cubic lattice is a local minimizer is also computed.
We consider the minimization of theta functions $θ\_Λ(α)=\sum\_{p\inΛ}e^{-πα|p|^2}$ amongst lattices $Λ\subset \mathbb R^d$, by reducing the dimension of the problem, following as a motivation the case $d=3$, where minimizers are supposed to be either the BCC or the FCC lattices. A first way to reduce dimension is by considering layered lattices, and minimize either among competitors presenting different sequences of repetitions of the layers, or among competitors presenting different shifts of the layers with respect to each other. The second case presents the problem of minimizing theta functions also on translated lattices, namely minimizing $(L,u)\mapsto θ\_{L+u}(α)$. Another way to reduce dimension is by considering lattices with a product structure or by successively minimizing over concentric layers. The first direction leads to the question of minimization amongst orthorhombic lattices, whereas the second is relevant for asymptotics questions, which we study in detail in two dimensions.
We give a sufficient condition on a family of radial parametrized long-range potentials for a compact local minimality of a given $d$-dimensional Bravais lattice for its total energy of interaction created by each potential. This work is widely inspired by the paper of F. Theil about two dimensional crystallization.
In this paper, we study minimization problems among Bravais lattices for finite energy per point. We prove that if a function is completely monotonic, then the triangular lattice minimizes energy per particle among Bravais lattices with density fixed for any density. Furthermore we give an example of convex decreasing positive potential for which triangular lattice is not a minimizer for some densities. We use Montgomery method presented in our previous work to prove minimality of triangular lattice among Bravais lattices at high density for some general potentials. Finally we deduce global minimality among all Bravais lattices, i.e. without density constraint, of a triangular lattice for some parameters of Lennard-Jones type potentials and attractive-repulsive Yukawa potentials.
We study the two dimensional Lennard-Jones energy per particle of lattices and we prove that the minimizer among Bravais lattices with sufficiently large density is triangular and that is not the case for sufficiently small density. We give other results about the global minimizer of this energy. Moreover we study the energy per particle stemming from Thomas-Fermi model in two dimensions and we prove that the minimizer among Bravais lattices with fixed density is triangular. We use a result of Montgomery from Number Theory about the minimization of Theta functions in the plane.