Weak lower semicontinuity conjecture for homogenized elliptic energies

Let Ω\Omega be the domain, let AεA_{\varepsilon} and BεB_{\varepsilon} be the coefficient fields from the preceding boundary-value problem, and let BB^\sharp be the homogenized coefficient associated with BεB_{\varepsilon}. For weakly convergent data gεgg_{\varepsilon}\rightharpoonup g in H1(Ω)H^{-1}(\Omega), let vεH01(Ω)v_{\varepsilon}\in H^1_0(\Omega) be the weak solution of

div(Aεvε)=gεin Ω,vε=0on Ω,-\operatorname{div}(A_{\varepsilon}\nabla v_{\varepsilon})=g_{\varepsilon}\quad\text{in }\Omega,\qquad v_{\varepsilon}=0\quad\text{on }\partial\Omega,

and suppose that vεv0v_{\varepsilon}\rightharpoonup v_0 weakly in H01(Ω)H^1_0(\Omega), where v0H01(Ω)v_0\in H^1_0(\Omega) is the unique solution of the homogenized limit problem. Weak lower semicontinuity conjecture. One has

lim infε0ΩBεvεvεdxΩBv0v0dx.\liminf_{\varepsilon\to 0}\int_\Omega B_{\varepsilon}\nabla v_{\varepsilon}\cdot\nabla v_{\varepsilon}\,dx\geq\int_\Omega B^\sharp\nabla v_0\cdot\nabla v_0\,dx.

The conjecture asks whether the homogenized energy gives a lower bound for sequences of solutions with weakly convergent right-hand sides; the source states that it is open in general.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Rajesh Mahadevan and T. Muthukumar, “Homogenization of some low-cost control problems”, arXiv:0910.2761 (2009).

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