No-local-minimum conjecture for the discrete signed-mass energy

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Let x=(x1,…,xd)x=(x_1,\ldots,x_d) with xi∈Rnx_i\in{\mathbb R}^n, signed masses m(xi)m(x_i) satisfying

∑i=1d∣m(xi)∣2=1,\sum_{i=1}^d |m(x_i)|^2=1,

and define

E(m(x))=∑i,j=1d−2m(xi)m(xj)∣xi−xj∣n+2s.E(m(x))=\sum_{i,j=1}^d\frac{-2m(x_i)m(x_j)}{|x_i-x_j|^{n+2s}}.

A configuration is stationary and stable when its first variation vanishes and its symmetric second variation is nonnegative in every direction. No-local-minimum conjecture. The energy EE has no local minimum for d≥2d\geq 2. This is a discrete toy analogue of the proposed behavior for interacting components of fractional-Laplacian eigenvalue minimizers; the source introduces it as an associated conjecture and gives no resolution.

References

Primary source

Alvis Zahl, “Minimizing Eigenvalues of the Fractional Laplacian”, arXiv:2504.09840 (2025).

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