# American Institute of Mathematical Sciences

April  2013, 33(4): 1231-1246. doi: 10.3934/dcds.2013.33.1231

## Critical points of functionalized Lagrangians

 1 Department of Mathematics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824 2 Nico Holding LLC, 222 W. Adams Street, Chicago, IL, 60606, United States

Received  September 2011 Revised  October 2011 Published  October 2012

We present a novel class of higher order energies motivated by the study of network formation in binary mixtures of functionalized polymers and solvent. For a broad class of Lagrangians, we introduce their functionalized form, which is a higher order energy balancing the square of the variational derivative against the original energy. We show that the functionalized energies have global minimizers over several natural spaces of admissible functions. The critical points of the functionalized Lagrangian contain those of the original Lagrangian, however we demonstrate that for a sufficient strength of the functionalization all the critical points of the original Lagrangian are saddle points of the functionalized Lagrangian, and the global minima is a new structure.
Citation: Keith Promislow, Hang Zhang. Critical points of functionalized Lagrangians. Discrete & Continuous Dynamical Systems - A, 2013, 33 (4) : 1231-1246. doi: 10.3934/dcds.2013.33.1231
##### References:
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##### References:
 [1] J. W. Cahn and J. E. Hilliard, Free energy of a nonuniform system. I. Interfacial energy,, J. Chem. Phys., 28 (1958), 258. Google Scholar [2] P. Canham, Minimum energy of bending as a possible explanation of biconcave shape of human red blood cell,, J. Theor. Biol., 26 (1970), 61. doi: 10.1016/S0022-5193(70)80032-7. Google Scholar [3] E. Crossland, M. Kamperman, M. Nedelcu, C. Ducati, U. Wiesner, D. Smilgies, G. Toombes, M. Hillmyer, S. Ludwigs, U. Steiner and H. Snaith, A Bicontinuous double gyroid hybrid solar cell,, Nano Letters, 9 (2009), 2807. doi: 10.1021/nl803174p. Google Scholar [4] Qiang Du, Chun Liu, Rolf Ryham and Xiaoqiang Wang, A phase field formulation of the Willmore problem,, Nonlinearity, 18 (2005), 1249. Google Scholar [5] L. C. Evans, "Partial Differential Equations,", American Mathematical Society, (2000). Google Scholar [6] N. Gavish, G. Hayrapetyan, K. Promislow and L. Yang, Curvature driven flow of bi-layer interfaces,, Physica D, 240 (2011), 675. doi: 10.1016/j.physd.2010.11.016. Google Scholar [7] G. Gompper and M. Schick, Correlation between structural and interfacial properties of amphillic systems,, Phys. Rev. Lett., 65 (1990), 1116. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.65.1116. Google Scholar [8] W. Helfrich, Elastic properties of lipid bilayers - theory and possible experiments,, Zeitshcrift fur naturforschung C, 28 (1973), 693. Google Scholar [9] William Hsu and Timothy Gierke, Ion transport and clustering in Nafion perfluorinated membranes,, J. Membrane Science, 13 (1983), 307. doi: 10.1016/S0376-7388(00)81563-X. Google Scholar [10] Kun-Mu Lee, Chih-Yu Hsu, Wei-Hao Chiu, Meng-Chin Tsui, Yung-Liang Tung, Song-Yeu Tsai and Kuo-Chuan Ho, Dye-sensitized solar cells with mirco-porous TiO$_2$ electrode and gel polymer electrolytes prepared by in situ cross-link reaction,, Solar Energy Materials & Solar cells, 93 (2009), 2003. Google Scholar [11] Roger Moser, A higher order asymptotic problem related to phase transition,, SIAM Journal Math. Anal., 37 (2005), 712. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2004.11.015. Google Scholar [12] L. Modica, The gradient theory of phase transitions and the minimal interface criterion,, Arch. Rational. Mech. Anal., 98 (1987), 123. Google Scholar [13] J. Peet, A. Heeger and G. Bazan, "Plastic'' Solar cells: Self-assembly of bulk hetrojunction nanomaterials by spontaneous phase separation,, Accounts of Chemical Research, 42 (2009), 1700. doi: 10.1016/j.ssc.2008.12.019. Google Scholar [14] K. Promislow and B. Wetton, PEM fuel cells: A mathematical overview,, SIAM Math. Analysis, 70 (2009), 369. Google Scholar [15] Matthias Röger and Reiner Schätzle, On a modified conjecture of De Giorgi,, Math. Z., 254 (2006), 675. Google Scholar [16] L. Rubatat, G. Gebel and O. Diat, Fibriallar structure of Nafion: Matching Fourier and real space studies of corresponding films and solutions,, Macromolecules, 2004 (): 7772. Google Scholar [17] U. Schwarz and G. Gompper, Bicontinuous surfaces in self-assembled amphiphilic systems,, in, 600 (2002), 107. Google Scholar [18] P. Sternberg, The effect of a singular perturbation on nonconvex variational problems,, Arch. Rational Mech. Anal., 101 (1988), 209. Google Scholar [19] M. Struwe, "Variational Methods,", Springer-Verlag, (1990). Google Scholar
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