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Marco Cicalese

Publications and source records attributed to Marco Cicalese.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Discrete Quantitative Isocapacitary Inequality: Fluctuation Estimates

The classical isocapacitary inequality states that, among all sets of fixed volume, the ball uniquely minimizes the capacity. While this result holds in the continuum, it fails in the discrete setting, where the isocapacitary problem may admit multiple minimizers. In this paper we establish quantitative fluctuation estimates for the discrete isocapacitary problem on subsets of $\mathbb{Z}^d$ as their cardinality diverges. Our approach relies on a careful extension of the associated variational problem from the discrete to the continuum setting, combined with sharp (continuum) quantitative isocapacitary inequalities.

math.AP↗
arXiv2025

Crystalline Motion of discrete interfaces in the Blume-Emery-Griffiths Model: partial wetting

We continue the variational study of the discrete-to-continuum evolution of lattice systems of Blume-Emery-Griffith type which model two immiscible phases in the presence of a surfactant. In our previous work \cite{CFS}, we analyzed the case of a completely wetted crystal and described how the interplay between surfactant evaporation and mass conservation leads to a transition between crystalline mean curvature flow and pinned evolutions. In the present paper, we extend the analysis to the regime of partial wetting, where the surfactant occupies only a portion of the interface. Within the minimizing-movements scheme, we rigorously derive the continuum evolution and show how partial wetting introduces a complex coupling between interfacial motion and redistribution of surfactant. The resulting evolution exhibits new features absent in the fully wetted case, including the coexistence of moving and pinned facets or the emergence and long-lived metastable states. This provides, to our knowledge, the first discrete-to-continuum variational description of partially wetted crystalline interfaces, bridging the gap between microscopic lattice models and experimentally observed surfactant-induced pinning phenomena in immiscible systems.

math.AP↗
arXiv2025

Crystalline motion of discrete interfaces in the Blume-Emery-Griffiths model

We study the discrete-to-continuum evolution of a lattice system consisting of two immiscible phases labelled by -1 and +1 in presence of a surfactant phase labelled by 0. The system's energy is described by the classical Blume-Emery-Griffith model on the lattice epsilon Z^2, and its continuum evolution is obtained as epsilon tends to zero through a minimizing-movements scheme with a time step proportional to epsilon. The dissipation functional we choose contains two contributions: a standard Almgren-Taylor-Wang type term penalizing the distance between successive configurations of the +1 phase, and a term penalizing the variation of the surfactant mass and modeling surfactant evaporation. The latter term depends on a scaling parameter gamma > 0, which determines whether the surfactant mass is conserved at each time step. We focus on the case in which the initial configuration consists of a single crystal of phase 1 completely wetted by the surfactant. For gamma > 2 the surfactant can lose mass and the evolution reduces to the crystalline mean curvature flow of an Ising-type model, while for gamma < 2 the conservation of the surfactant mass leads to a more complex evolution characterized by stronger non-uniqueness and partial pinning.

math.AP↗
arXiv2025

The Quantitative Faber-Krahn Inequality for the Combinatorial Laplacian in $\mathbb{Z}^{d}$

While the classical Faber-Krahn inequality shows that the ball uniquely minimizes the first Dirichlet eigenvalue of the Laplacian in the continuum, this rigidity may fail in the discrete setting. We establish quantitative fluctuation estimates for the first Dirichlet eigenvalue of the combinatorial Laplacian on subsets of $\mathbb{Z}^{d}$ when their cardinality diverges. Our approach is based on a controlled discrete-to-continuum extension of the associated variational problem and the quantitative Faber-Krahn inequality.

math.FA↗
arXiv2025

Energy concentration in a two-dimensional magnetic skyrmion model: variational analysis of lattice and continuum theories

We investigate the formation of singularities in a baby Skyrme type energy model, which describes magnetic solitons in two-dimensional ferromagnetic systems. In presence of a diverging anisotropy term, which enforces a preferred background state of the magnetization, we establish a weak compactness of its topological charge density, which converges to an atomic measure with quantized weights. We characterize the $\Gamma$-limit of the energies as the total variation of this measure. In the case of lattice type energies, we first need to carefully define a notion of discrete topological charge for $\mathbb{S}^2$-valued maps. We then prove a corresponding compactness and $\Gamma$-convergence result, thereby bridging the discrete and continuum theories.

math.AP↗
arXiv2025

Consistency for the surface diffusion flat flow in three dimensions

We investigate the flat flow solution for the surface diffusion equation via the discrete minimizing movements scheme proposed by Cahn and Taylor. We prove that in dimension three the scheme converges to the unique smooth solution of the equation, provided that the initial set is sufficiently regular.

math.AP↗
arXiv2024

From discrete to continuum in the helical XY-model: emergence of chirality transitions in the $S^1$ to $S^2$ limit

We analyze the discrete-to-continuum limit of a frustrated ferromagnetic/anti-ferromagnetic $\mathbb{S}^2$-valued spin system on the lattice $\lambda_n\mathbb{Z}^2$ as $\lambda_n\to 0$. For $\mathbb{S}^2$ spin systems close to the Landau-Lifschitz point (where the helimagnetic/ferromagnetic transition occurs), it is well established that for chirality transitions emerge with vanishing energy. Inspired by recent work on the $N$-clock model, we consider a spin model where spins are constrained to $k_n$ copies of $\mathbb{S}^1$ covering $\mathbb{S}^2$ as $n\to\infty$. We identify a critical energy-scaling regime and a threshold for the divergence rate of $k_n\to+\infty$, below which the $\Gamma$-limit of the discrete energies capture chirality transitions while retaining an $\mathbb{S}^2$-valued energy description in the continuum limit.

math.AP↗
arXiv2024

Surfactants in a Non-local Model for Phase Transitions

We investigate the influence of surfactants on stabilizing the formation of interfaces in non-local anisotropic two-phase fluid at equilibrium. The analysis focuses on singularly perturbed non-local van der Waals-Cahn-Hillard-type energies, supplemented with a term that accounts for the interaction between the surfactant and the fluid. We derive by Gamma-convergence the effective surface tension model as the thickness of the transition layer vanishes and show that it decreases when the surfactant segregates to the interface.

math.AP↗
arXiv2024

Stacking faults in the limit of a discrete model for partial edge dislocations

In the limit of vanishing lattice spacing we provide a rigorous variational coarse-graining result for a next-to-nearest neighbor lattice model of a simple crystal. We show that the $Γ$-limit of suitable scaled versions of the model leads to an energy describing a continuum mechanical model depending on partial dislocations and stacking faults. Our result highlights the necessary multiscale character of the energies setting the groundwork for more comprehensive models that can better explain and predict the mechanical behavior of materials with complex defect structures.

math.AP↗
arXiv2024

Discrete and Continuum Area-Preserving Mean-Curvature Flow of Rectangles

We investigate the area-preserving mean-curvature-type motion of a two-dimensional lattice crystal obtained by coupling constrained minimizing movements scheme introduced by Almgren, Taylor and Wang with a discrete-to-continuous analysis. We first examine the continuum counterpart of the model and establish the existence and uniqueness of the flat flow, originating from a rectangle. Additionally, we characterize the governing system of ordinary differential equations. Subsequently, in the atomistic setting, we identify geometric properties of the discrete-in-time flow and describe the governing system of finite-difference inclusions. Finally, in the limit where both spatial and time scales vanish at the same rate, we prove that a discrete-to-continuum evolution is expressed through a system of differential inclusions which does never reduce to a system of ODEs.

math.AP↗
arXiv2024

A notion of $s$-fractional mass for $1$-currents in higher codimension

In this paper we propose a notion of $s$-fractional mass for $1$-currents in $\R^d$. Such a notion generalizes the notion of $s$-fractional perimeters for sets in the plane to higher codimension one-dimensional singularities. Remarkably, the limit as $s\to 1$ of the $s$-fractional mass gives back the classical notion of length for regular enough curves in $\R^d$. We prove a lower semi-continuity and compactness result for sequences of $1$-currents with uniformly bounded fractional mass and support. Moreover, we prove the density of weighted polygonal, closed and compact oriented curves in the class of divergence-free 1-currents with compact support and finite fractional mass. Finally, we discuss some possible applications of our notion of fractional mass to build up purely geometrical approaches to the variational modeling of dislocation lines in crystals and to vortex filaments in superconductivity.

math.FA↗
arXiv2024

Surfactants in the Two Gradient Theory of Phase Transitions

We investigate the influence of surfactants on stabilizing the formation of interfaces in solid-solid phase transitions. The analysis focuses on singularly perturbed van der Waals-Cahn-Hillard-type energies for gradient vector fields, supplemented with a term that accounts for the interaction between the surfactant and the solid. Assuming the potential term to have only two rank-one connected wells, we prove that the effective energy for the formation of an interface decreases when the surfactant segregate to the interface.

math.AP↗
arXiv2022

Emergence of Wulff-Crystals from atomistic systems on the FCC and HCP lattices

We consider a system of $N$ hard spheres sitting on the nodes of either the $\mathrm{FCC}$ or $\mathrm{HCP}$ lattice and interacting via a sticky-disk potential. As $N$ tends to infinity (continuum limit), assuming the interaction energy does not exceed that of the ground-state by more than $N^{2/3}$ (surface scaling), we obtain the variational coarse grained model by $Γ$-convergence. More precisely, we prove that the continuum limit energies are of perimeter type and we compute explicitly their Wulff shapes. Our analysis shows that crystallization on $\mathrm{FCC}$ is preferred to that on $\mathrm{HCP}$ for $N$ large enough. The method is based on integral representation and concentration-compactness results that we prove for general periodic lattices in any dimension.

math.AP↗
arXiv2022

Renormalized energy between fractional vortices with topologically induced free discontinuities on 2-dimensional Riemannian manifolds

On a two-dimensional Riemannian manifold without boundary we consider the variational limit of a family of functionals given by the sum of two terms: a Ginzburg-Landau and a perimeter term. Our scaling allows low-energy states to be described by an order parameter which can have finitely many point singularities (vortex-like defects) of (possibly) fractional-degree connected by line discontinuities (string defects) of finite length. Our main result is a compactness and $Γ$-convergence theorem which shows how the coarse grained limit energy depends on the geometry of the manifold in driving the interaction between vortices and string defects.

math.AP↗
arXiv2021

Variational analysis of the $J_1$-$J_2$-$J_3$ model: a non-linear lattice version of the Aviles-Giga functional

We study the variational limit of the frustrated $J_1$-$J_2$-$J_3$ spin model on the square lattice in the vicinity of the ferromagnet/helimagnet transition point as the lattice spacing vanishes. We carry out the $Γ$-convergence analysis of proper scalings of the energy and we characterize the optimal cost of a chirality transition in $BV$ proving that the system is asymptotically driven by a discrete version of a non-linear perturbation of the Aviles-Giga energy functional.

math.AP↗
arXiv2021

Interfaces, modulated phases and textures in lattice systems

We introduce a class of $n$-dimensional (possibly inhomogeneous) spin-like lattice systems presenting modulated phases with possibly different textures. Such systems can be parameterized according to the number of ground states, and can be described by a phase-transition energy which we compute by means of variational techniques. Degeneracies due to frustration are also discussed.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗
arXiv2021

Emergence of concentration effects in the variational analysis of the $N$-clock model

We investigate the relationship between the $N$-clock model (also known as planar Potts model or $\mathbb{Z}_N$-model) and the $XY$ model (at zero temperature) through a $Γ$-convergence analysis of a suitable rescaling of the energy as both the number of particles and $N$ diverge. We prove the existence of rates of divergence of $N$ for which the continuum limits of the two models differ. With the aid of Cartesian currents we show that the asymptotics of the $N$-clock model in this regime features an energy which may concentrate on geometric objects of various dimensions. This energy prevails over the usual vortex-vortex interaction energy.

math-ph↗