Harmonic dipoles and the relaxation of the neo-Hookean energy in 3D elasticity

Abstract

In a previous work, Henao \& Rodiac (2018) proved an existence result for the neo-Hookean energy in 3D for the essentially 2D problem of axisymmetric domains away from the symmetry axis. In this paper we pursue the investigation of this problem, still in the axisymmetric setting, but without the assumption that the domain is hollow and at a distance apart of the symmetry axis. We propose a candidate for the associated relaxed energy defined in the space of weak-$H^{1}$ limits of deformation maps without cavitation. More precisely, we introduce an explicit energy functional (which coincides with the neo-Hookean energy for regular maps and expresses the cost of a singularity in terms of the jump and Cantor parts of the inverse) and an explicit admissible space (which contains all weak $H^1$ limits of regular maps), for which we can prove the existence of minimizers. Chances to succeed in establishing that minimizers do not have dipoles singularities are higher in this explicit alternative variational problem than when working with the abstract relaxation approach in the abstract space of all weak limits. Our candidate for relaxed energy has many similarities with the relaxed energy introduced by Bethuel-Br\' ezis-Coron for a problem with lack of compactness in harmonic maps theory. The proof we present in this paper for the lower semicontinuity of the augmented energy functional, partly inspired by the prominent role played by conformality in that context, further develops the connection between the minimization of the 3D neo-Hookean energy with the problem of finding a minimizing smooth harmonic map from $\mathbb{B}^3$ into $\mathbb{S}^2$ with zero degree boundary data.Comment: 53 page