On the characterization of the compact embedding of Sobolev spaces

For every positive regular Borel measure, possibly infinite valued, vanishing on all sets of $p$-capacity zero, we characterize the compactness of the embedding W^{1,p}({\bf R}^N)\cap L^p ({\bf R}^N,\mu)\hr L^q({\bf R}^N) in terms of the qualitative behavior of some characteristic PDE. This question is related to the well posedness of a class of geometric inequalities involving the torsional rigidity and the spectrum of the Dirichlet Laplacian introduced by Polya and Szeg\"o in 1951. In particular, we prove that finite torsional rigidity of an arbitrary domain (possibly with infinite measure), implies the compactness of the resolvent of the Laplacian.Comment: 19 page

On the torsion function with Robin or Dirichlet boundary conditions

For $p\in (1,+\infty)$ and $b \in (0, +\infty]$ the $p$-torsion function with Robin boundary conditions associated to an arbitrary open set \Om \subset \R^m satisfies formally the equation $-\Delta_p =1$ in \Om and $|\nabla u|^{p-2} \frac{\partial u}{\partial n} + b|u|^{p-2} u =0$ on \partial \Om. We obtain bounds of the $L^\infty$ norm of $u$ {\it only} in terms of the bottom of the spectrum (of the Robin $p$-Laplacian), $b$ and the dimension of the space in the following two extremal cases: the linear framework (corresponding to $p=2$) and arbitrary $b>0$, and the non-linear framework (corresponding to arbitrary $p>1$) and Dirichlet boundary conditions ($b=+\infty$). In the general case, $p\not=2, p \in (1, +\infty)$ and $b>0$ our bounds involve also the Lebesgue measure of \Om.Comment: 19 page

A model for the quasi-static growth of brittle fractures based on local minimization

We study a variant of the variational model for the quasi-static growth of brittle fractures proposed by Francfort and Marigo. The main feature of our model is that, in the discrete-time formulation, in each step we do not consider absolute minimizers of the energy, but, in a sense, we look for local minimizers which are sufficiently close to the approximate solution obtained in the previous step. This is done by introducing in the variational problem an additional term which penalizes the $L^2$-distance between the approximate solutions at two consecutive times. We study the continuous-time version of this model, obtained by passing to the limit as the time step tends to zero, and show that it satisfies (for almost every time) some minimality conditions which are slightly different from those considered in Francfort and Marigo and in our previous paper, but are still enough to prove (under suitable regularity assumptions on the crack path) that the classical Griffith's criterion holds at the crack tips. We prove also that, if no initial crack is present and if the data of the problem are sufficiently smooth, no crack will develop in this model, provided the penalization term is large enough.Comment: 20 page

On the minimization of Dirichlet eigenvalues of the Laplace operator

We study the variational problem \inf \{\lambda_k(\Omega): \Omega\ \textup{open in}\ \R^m,\ |\Omega| < \infty, \ \h(\partial \Omega) \le 1 \}, where $\lambda_k(\Omega)$ is the $k$'th eigenvalue of the Dirichlet Laplacian acting in $L^2(\Omega)$, \h(\partial \Omega) is the $(m-1)$- dimensional Hausdorff measure of the boundary of $\Omega$, and $|\Omega|$ is the Lebesgue measure of $\Omega$. If $m=2$, and $k=2,3, \cdots$, then there exists a convex minimiser $\Omega_{2,k}$. If $m \ge 2$, and if $\Omega_{m,k}$ is a minimiser, then $\Omega_{m,k}^*:= \textup{int}(\overline{\Omega_{m,k}})$ is also a minimiser, and $\R^m\setminus \Omega_{m,k}^*$ is connected. Upper bounds are obtained for the number of components of $\Omega_{m,k}$. It is shown that if $m\ge 3$, and $k\le m+1$ then $\Omega_{m,k}$ has at most $4$ components. Furthermore $\Omega_{m,k}$ is connected in the following cases : (i) $m\ge 2, k=2,$ (ii) $m=3,4,5,$ and $k=3,4,$ (iii) $m=4,5,$ and $k=5,$ (iv) $m=5$ and $k=6$. Finally, upper bounds on the number of components are obtained for minimisers for other constraints such as the Lebesgue measure and the torsional rigidity.Comment: 16 page

Optimization problems involving the first Dirichlet eigenvalue and the torsional rigidity

We present some open problems and obtain some partial results for spectral optimization problems involving measure, torsional rigidity and first Dirichlet eigenvalue.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure

Some remarks on the isoperimetric problem for the higher eigenvalues of the Robin and Wentzell Laplacians

We consider the problem of minimising the $k$th eigenvalue, $k \geq 2$, of the ($p$-)Laplacian with Robin boundary conditions with respect to all domains in $\mathbb{R}^N$ of given volume $M$. When $k=2$, we prove that the second eigenvalue of the $p$-Laplacian is minimised by the domain consisting of the disjoint union of two balls of equal volume, and that this is the unique domain with this property. For $p=2$ and $k \geq 3$, we prove that in many cases a minimiser cannot be independent of the value of the constant $\alpha$ in the boundary condition, or equivalently of the volume $M$. We obtain similar results for the Laplacian with generalised Wentzell boundary conditions $\Delta u + \beta \frac{\partial u}{\partial \nu} + \gamma u = 0$.Comment: 16 page

Multiphase shape optimization problems

This paper is devoted to the analysis of multiphase shape optimization problems, which can formally be written as min (Formula presented.) where D ⊆ ℝd is a given bounded open set, |Ωi| is the Lebesgue measure of Ωi, and m is a positive constant. For a large class of such functionals, we analyze qualitative properties of the cells and the interaction between them. Each cell is itself a subsolution for a (single-phase) shape optimization problem, from which we deduce properties like finite perimeter, inner density, separation by open sets, absence of triple junction points, etc. As main examples we consider functionals involving the eigenvalues of the Dirichlet Laplacian of each cell, i.e., Fi = λki