Calculus of Variations and Geometric Measure Theory

D. De Gennaro - A. De Rosa

Non-polyconvex $Q$-integrands with lower semicontinuous energies

created by derosa on 28 Oct 2025
modified on 11 Sep 2026

[BibTeX]

Published Paper

Inserted: 28 oct 2025
Last Updated: 11 sep 2026

Journal: Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal.
Year: 2026

ArXiv: 2510.24610 PDF

Abstract:

For any fixed \(Q \in \mathbb{N}\), we construct a positive measure on the space of positively oriented \(2\)-vectors in \(\mathbb{R}^4\), whose barycenter is a simple \(2\)-vector, yet which cannot be approximated by weighted Gaussian images of Lipschitz \(Q\)-graphs. The construction extends to positively oriented \(m\)-vectors in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) whenever \(n-2 \ge m\geq 2\). This geometric obstruction implies that the approximation result established in (Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal., 2025) is sharp: all \(Q \in \mathbb{N}\) are indeed necessary to ensure the density of weighted Gaussian images of Lipschitz multigraphs in the space of positive measures with simple barycenter. As an application, we prove that for every $Q\geq 1$ and $p\ge 2$ there exists a non-polyconvex $Q$-integrand whose associated energy is weakly lower semicontinuous in $W^{1,p}$. This also provides new insight into the question posed in (Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal., 2025, Remark 1.14).

Tags: ANGEVA