arXiv subjects

Lia Bronsard

Publications and source records attributed to Lia Bronsard.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Symmetry breaking in the liquid drop model with screened interactions

We investigate liquid drop models with screened Riesz-type interactions, focusing in particular on truncated Coulomb and Yukawa potentials in three dimensions. While in the classical Gamow model with Coulomb interaction the only minimizers are balls, as recently proved by Chodosh and Gianocca (2026), we show that this is no longer true if the interaction is screened. In the case of truncated Coulomb and Yukawa potentials, we prove that for some values of the parameter, there exist connected minimizers which are not balls. For truncated Coulomb potentials, we further obtain genuine symmetry breaking by showing existence of non-radial connected minimizers. This gives the first evidence of minimizers which are not balls in three dimensions, and the first evidence of non-radial minimizers altogether, in the class of radial kernels. Our approach relies on a comparison of the energy-per-mass ratios of balls, core-shells and cylinders.

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arXiv2026

The Liquid Drop Model with a Yukawa Potential: Existence of Minimizers and Sharp Stability of the Ball

We study a long-range perturbation of the perimeter functional by a nonlocal repulsive term defined through the Yukawa kernel, minimized under a volume constraint. Because the kernel decays exponentially, the competition between surface tension and repulsion is governed by two independent quantities, the screening rate and the volume. Specifically we prove that (i) above an explicit critical screening rate, minimizers exist at every volume, whereas earlier work required the volume to be large; (ii) below an explicit volume threshold minimizers exist for every screening rate; (iii) at small volume, and uniformly in the screening rate, the ball is the unique minimizer up to translation; and (iv) there exists a sharp volume threshold, depending on the screening rate, for the ball to be a stable volume-constrained critical point. The threshold is given in closed form for every screening rate and reduces to the known unscreened value when $α=0$. Our proofs overcome new technical changes due to the lack of homogeneity in the Yukawa kernel.

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arXiv2025

A priori estimates and $η-$compactness for anisotropic Ginzburg-Landau minimizers with tangential anchoring

We consider minimizers $u_\varepsilon$ of the Ginzburg-Landau energy with quadratic divergence or curl penalization on a simply-connected two-dimensional domain $Ω$. On the boundary, strong tangential anchoring is imposed. We prove a priori estimates for $u_\varepsilon$ in $L^\infty$ uniform in $\varepsilon$ and that the Lipschitz constant of $u_\varepsilon$ blows up like $\varepsilon^{-1}$. We then deduce compactness for a subsequence that converges to an $\mathbb{S}^1-$valued map with either one interior point defect or two boundary half-defects. We conclude our study with a proof that no boundary vortices can occur in the divergence penalized case.

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arXiv2025

Minimizing solutions of degenerate Allen-Cahn equations with three wells in $\mathbb{R}^2$

We characterize all minimizers of the vector-valued Allen-Cahn equation in $\mathbb{R}^2$ under the assumption that the potential $W$ has three wells and that the associated degenerate metric does not satisfy the usual strict triangle inequality. These minimizers depend on one variable only in a suitable coordinate system. In particular, we show that no minimizing solutions to $ Δu=\nabla W(u)$ on $\mathbb{R}^2$ can approach the three distinct values of the potential wells.

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arXiv2025

Asymptotics for Minimizers of Landau-de Gennes with a Magnetic Field and Tangential Anchoring

In this article we prove existence of minimizers of the Landau-de Gennes energy for liquid crystals with homogeneous external magnetic field and strong uniaxial planar anchoring. Next we consider the asymptotics of solutions to the joint minimization of the energy w.r.t. the function and its boundary condition. This constitutes a generalization to arbitrary regular particle shapes of the results obtained in [BLS, arXiv:2403.20274] in a particular setting. Moreover, we show the absence of line singularities in some asymptotic parameter regime. Finally we characterize the optimal orientation of particles vis-à-vis the magnetic field direction and compute it explicitly for different particle shapes.

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arXiv2025

Compensation effects for anisotropic energies of two-dimensional unit vector fields

We study the highly anisotropic energy of two-dimensional unit vector fields given by \begin{align*} E_ε(u)= \int_Ω (\mathrm{div}\,u)^2 + ε(\mathrm{curl}\,u)^2\, dx\,, \quad u\colonΩ\subset\mathbb R^2\to\mathbb S^1\, \end{align*} in the limit $ε\to 0$. This energy clearly loses control on the full gradient of $u$ as $ε\to 0$, but, adapting tools from hyperbolic conservations laws, we show that it still controls derivatives of order 1/2. In particular, any bounded energy sequence $E_ε(u_ε)\leq C$ is compact in $W^{s,3}_{\mathrm{loc}}(Ω)$ for $s<1/2$. Moreover, this order 1/2 of differentiability is optimal, in the sense that any map $u\in W^{1/2,4}(Ω;\mathbb S^1)$ is a limit of a bounded energy sequence. We also establish compactness of boundary traces in $L^1(\partialΩ)$, and characterize the $Γ$-limit in the simpler case of maps of a single variable and in the case of a thin-film model.

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arXiv2025

On the non-uniqueness of locally minimizing clusters via singular cones

We construct partitions of $\mathbb{R}^n$ into three sets $\{\mathscr{X}(1),\mathscr{X}(2),\mathscr{X}(3)\}$ that locally minimize interfacial area among compactly supported volume preserving variations and that blow down at infinity to singular area-minimizing cones. As a consequence, we prove the non-uniqueness of the standard lens cluster in a large number of dimensions starting from $8$.

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arXiv2025

An Infinite Double Bubble Theorem

The classical double bubble theorem characterizes the minimizing partitions of $\mathbb{R}^n$ into three chambers, two of which have prescribed finite volume. In this paper we prove a variant of the double bubble theorem in which two of the chambers have infinite volume. Such a configuration is an example of a (1,2)-cluster, or a partition of $\mathbb{R}^n$ into three chambers, two of which have infinite volume and only one of which has finite volume. A $(1,2)$-cluster is locally minimizing with respect to a family of weights $\{c_{jk}\}$ if for any $B_r(0)$, it minimizes the interfacial energy $\sum_{j<k} c_{jk} \mathscr{H}^n(\partial \mathscr{X}(j) \cap \partial\mathscr{X}(k) \cap B_r(0))$ among all variations with compact support in $B_r(0)$ which preserve the volume of $\mathscr{X}(1)$. For $(1,2)$ clusters, the analogue of the weighted double bubble is the weighted lens cluster, and we show that it is locally minimizing. Furthermore, under a symmetry assumption on $\{c_{jk}\}$ that includes the case of equal weights, the weighted lens cluster is the unique local minimizer in $\mathbb{R}^n$ for $n\leq 7$, with the same uniqueness holding in $\mathbb{R}^n$ for $n\geq 8$ under a natural growth assumption. We also obtain a closure theorem for locally minimizing $(N,2)$-clusters.

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arXiv2025

Decorated phases in triblock copolymers: zeroth- and first-order analysis

We study a two-dimensional inhibitory ternary system characterized by a free energy functional which combines an interface short-range interaction energy promoting micro-domain growth with a Coulomb-type long-range interaction energy which prevents micro-domains from unlimited spreading. Here we consider a scenario in which two species are dominant and one species is vanishingly small. In this scenario two energy levels are distinguished: the zeroth-order energy encodes information on the optimal arrangement of the dominant constituents, while the first-order energy gives the shape of the vanishing constituent. This first-order energy also shows that, for any optimal configuration, the vanishing phase must lie on the boundary between the two dominant constituents and form lens clusters also known as vesica piscis.

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arXiv2025

Interaction energies in nematic liquid crystal suspensions

We establish, as $ρ\to 0$, an asymptotic expansion for the minimal Dirichlet energy of $\mathbb S^2$-valued maps outside a finite number of three-dimensional particles of size $ρ$ with fixed centers $x_j\in\mathbb{R}^3$, under general anchoring conditions at the particle boundaries. Up to a scaling factor, this expansion is of the form \begin{align*} E_ρ= \sum_j μ_j -4πρ\sum_{i\neq j} \frac{\langle v_i,v_j\rangle}{|x_i-x_j|} +o(ρ)\,, \end{align*} where $μ_j$ is the minimal energy after zooming in at scale $ρ$ around each particle, and $v_j\in\mathbb{R}^3$ is a torque determined by the far-field behavior of the corresponding single-particle minimizer. The above expansion highlights Coulomb-like interactions between the particle centers. This agrees with the \textit{electrostatics analogy} commonly used in the physics literature for colloid interactions in nematic liquid crystal. That analogy was pioneered by Brochard and de Gennes in 1970, based on a formal linearization argument. We obtain here for the first time a precise estimate of the energy error introduced by this linearization procedure.

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arXiv2025

Minimizing Harmonic Maps on the Unit Ball with Tangential Anchoring

Since the seminal work of Schoen-Uhlenbeck, many authors have studied properties of harmonic maps satisfying Dirichlet boundary conditions. In this article, we instead investigate regularity and symmetry of $\mathbb{S}^2-$valued minimizing harmonic maps subject to a tangency constraint in the model case of the unit ball in $\mathbb{R}^{3}$. In particular, we obtain a monotonicity formula respecting tangentiality on a curved boundary in order to show optimal regularity up to the boundary. We introduce novel sufficient conditions under which the minimizer must exhibit symmetries. Under a symmetry assumption, we present a delineation of the singularities of minimizers, namely that a mimimizer has exactly two point singularities, located on the boundary at opposite points.

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arXiv2024

Spherical Particle in Nematic Liquid Crystal with a Magnetic Field and Planar Anchoring

We study minimizers of the Landau-de Gennes energy in $\mathbb{R}^3\setminus B_1(0)$ with external magnetic field in the large particle limit. We impose strong tangential anchoring and uniaxiality of the $Q-$tensor on the boundary. We derive a lower bound for the energy in terms of the boundary condition and show in the extreme cases of strong and weak magnetic field strength that the longitudinal director field is energy minimizing, indicating the presence of two half-point defects, so called boojums, at two opposite points of the sphere. Using a recovery sequence, we show that the energy bound is optimal in these extreme cases.

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arXiv2024

On a Divergence Penalized Landau-de Gennes Model

We give a brief introduction to a divergence penalized Landau-de Gennes functional as a toy model for the study of nematic liquid crystal with colloid inclusion, in the case of unequal elastic constants. We assume that the nematic occupies the exterior of the unit ball, satisfies homeotropic anchoring at the surface of the colloid and approaches a uniform uniaxial state as $|x|\to\infty$. We study the "small particle" limit and obtain a representation formula for solutions to the associated Euler-Lagrange equations. We also present a numerical analysis of these equations based on a finite element approach and discuss the effect of the divergence penalization on the "Saturn ring" defects and on the properties of the $Q$-tensor.

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arXiv2024

A priori $L^\infty-$bound for Ginzburg-Landau energy minimizers with divergence penalization

We consider minimizers $u_\varepsilon$ of the Ginzburg-Landau energy with quadratic divergence penalization on a simply-connected two-dimensional domain $Ω$. On the boundary, strong tangential anchoring is imposed. We prove that minimizers satisfy a $L^\infty$-bound uniform in $\varepsilon$ when $Ω$ has $C^{2,1}-$boundary and that the Lipschitz constant blows up like $\varepsilon^{-1}$ when $Ω$ has $C^{3,1}-$boundary. Our theorem extends to $W^{2,p}-$regularity result for our elliptic system with mixed Dirichlet-Neumann boundary condition.

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arXiv2023

The standard lens cluster in R^2 uniquely minimizes relative perimeter

In this article we consider the isoperimetric problem for partitioning the plane into three disjoint domains, one having unit area and the remaining two having infinite area. We show that the only solution, up to rigid motions of the plane, is a lens cluster consisting of circular arcs containing the finite area region, attached to a single axis, with two triple junctions where the arcs meet at 120 degree angles. In particular, we show that such a configuration is a local minimizer of the total perimeter functional, and on the other hand any local minimizer of perimeter among clusters with the given area constraints must coincide with a lens cluster having this geometry. Some known results and conjectures on similar problems with both finite and infinite area constraints are presented at the conclusion.

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arXiv2023

On a Free-Endpoint Isoperimetric Problem in $\mathbb{R}^2$

Inspired by a planar partitioning problem involving multiple improper chambers, this article investigates using classical techniques what can be said of the existence, uniqueness, and regularity of minimizers in a certain free-endpoint isoperimetric problem. By restricting to curves which are expressible as graphs of functions, a full existence-uniqueness-regularity result is proved using a convexity technique inspired by work of Talenti. The problem studied here can be interpreted physically as the identification of the equilibrium shape of a sessile liquid drop in half-space (in the absence of gravity). This is a well-studied variational problem whose full resolution requires the use of geometric measure theory, in particular the theory of sets of finite perimeter, but here we present a more direct, classical geometrical approach. Conjectures on improper planar partitioning problems are presented throughout.

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arXiv2023

On a Quaternary Non-Local Isoperimetric Problem

We study a two-dimensional quaternary inhibitory system. This free energy functional combines an interface energy favoring micro-domain growth with a Coulomb-type long range interaction energy which prevents micro-domains from unlimited spreading. Here we consider a limit in which three species are vanishingly small, but interactions are correspondingly large to maintain a nontrivial limit. In this limit two energy levels are distinguished: the highest order limit encodes information on the geometry of local structures as a three-component isoperimetric problem, while the second level describes the spatial distribution of components in global minimizers. Geometrical descriptions of limit configurations are derived.

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arXiv2023

$Γ$-Convergence of the Ginzburg-Landau Functional with tangential boundary conditions

A classical result in the study of Ginzburg-Landau equations is that, for Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions, if a sequence of functions has energy uniformly bounded on a logarithmic scale then we can find a subsequence whose Jacobians are convergent in suitable dual spaces and whose renormalized energy is at least the sum of absolute degrees of vortices. However, the corresponding question for the case of tangential or normal boundary conditions has not been considered. In addition, the question of convergence of up to the boundary is not very well understood. Here, we consider these questions for a bounded, connected, open set of $\mathbb{R}^{2}$ with $C^{2,1}$ boundary.

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