Submitted Paper

Inserted: 6 sep 2025
Last Updated: 6 sep 2025

Pages: 29
Year: 2025

Abstract:

We address finite crystallization in two dimensions in the presence of a flat crystalline substrate. Particles interact through short-range two- and three-body potentials favoring local square-lattice arrangements. An additional interaction term of relative strength $\beta>0$ couples the particles and the substrate. Our first main result proves crystallization for all $\beta>0$, corresponding to the onset of discrete Winterbottom configurations. The proof relies on a stratification technique from [31], characterizing the topology of the bond graph of minimizing configurations.

Our second main result concerns fluctuations estimates for $\beta\in (0,1)$. We obtain bounds on the distance between distinct minimizers with the same number $N$ of particles, showing a sharp scaling law $N^{3/4}$ when $\beta$ is rational, and $N^{1/3}$ when $\beta$ is irrational and algebraic. This reveals a genuine substrate-driven effect on fluctuation laws. As a corollary, we derive a discrete-to-continuum convergence of minimizers towards the Winterbottom equilibrium shape in the large-particle limit.

Keywords: crystallization, square lattice, Winterbottom shape, Particle interaction potentials, Stratification, Epitaxial growth

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