A rigorous approach to pattern formation for isotropic isoperimetric problems with competing nonlocal interactions

TL;DR

This paper rigorously analyzes pattern formation and symmetry breaking in isotropic nonlocal variational problems, proving that near critical regimes minimizers form flat, stripe-like domains, with implications for synthetic antiferromagnets.

Contribution

It provides a rigorous mathematical framework for understanding the structure of minimizers in nonlocal isoperimetric problems with competing interactions, especially near critical regimes.

Findings

Global minimizers form stripe or lamellae patterns.

A nonlocal curvature quantity controls boundary flatness.

Results apply to kernels with decay rate p ≥ d+3, relevant for antiferromagnetic materials.

Abstract

We introduce a rigorous approach to the study of the symmetry breaking and pattern formation phenomenon for isotropic functionals with local/nonlocal interactions in competition. We consider a general class of nonlocal variational problems in dimension $d\geq 2$, in which an isotropic surface term favouring pure phases competes with an isotropic nonlocal term with power law kernel favouring alternation between different phases. Close to the critical regime in which the two terms are of the same order, we give a rigorous proof of the conjectured structure of global minimizers, in the shape of domains with flat boundary (e.g., stripes or lamellae). The natural framework in which our approach is set and developed is the one of calculus of variations and geometric measure theory. Among others, we detect a nonlocal curvature-type quantity which is controlled by the energy functional and whose finiteness implies flatness for sufficiently regular boundaries. The power of decay of the considered kernels at infinity is $p\geq d+3$ and it is related to pattern formation in synthetic antiferromagnets.