Relaxation of the Anisotropic Perimeter – Part 1
I have discussed in a previous post how Modica-Mortola theorem can provide a good framework for relaxing the perimeter functional in the single and multi-phase cases. The ideas can be extended further to a more generalized notion of perimeter, the anisotropic perimeter. (anisotropic = directionally dependent)
The main idea is that the anisotropic perimeter doesn’t count every part of the boundary in the same way; some directions are more favorized than others. The anisotropic perimeter associated to a norm is defined by
There are variants of Modica-Mortola theorem for the anisotropic perimeter. Here is one of them:
Theorem – Relaxation of the Anisotropic Perimeter
Let be a bounded open set with Lipschitz boundary. Let
, let
be a continuous function such that
if and only if
and let
be a norm on
. Let
be defined by
and let be defined by
where . Then
.
Numerical Approximation using Relaxed Formulation
Sometimes it is easier to replace an optimization problem with a sequence of relaxed problems whose solutions approximate the solution to the initial problem.
This kind of procedure can be useful when we need to approximate numerically discontinuous functions (in particular the characteristic function). Modica Mortola theorem states that the functionals
-converges to the functional
(Recall that is a real function which is positive except for
and
where it is zero.)
SEEMOUS 2013 + Solutions
Here are some of the problems of SEEMOUS 2013. Update: the 4th problem has arrived; it is number 3 below.
1. Let be a continuous mapping, such that
Find the form of the map .
Solution: Change the variable from to
in the RHS integral and DO NOT calculate the last integral in the RHS. Get all the terms in the left and find that it is in fact the integral of a square equal to zero.
2. Let be nonzero matrices such that
and
. Prove that there is an invertible matrix
such that
and
.
Solution: One solution can be given using the fact that can be written in that form, but for different matrices
.
Another way to do it is to consider applications . We get at once
and from these we deduce that
and
. First note that
is not the zero application. Then there exists
, i.e. there exists
such that
. We have
. Consider
.
Then are not collinear,
. Consider now the basis formed by
and take
to be the change of base matrix from the canonical base to
.
3. Find the maximum possible value of
over all continuously differentiable functions with
and
.
4. Let such that there is
, with
. Prove that either
or
.
Solution: Consider the minimal polynomial of
, which has degree at most
. The eigenvalues of
satisfy
. We have two cases: either the eigenvalues are real and therefore they are both equal to
either they are complex and conjugate of modulus one. In both cases the determinant of
is equal to
. Therefore, by Cayley Hamiltoh theorem
satisfies an equation of the type
.
By hypothesis the minimal polynomial divides
. If
has degree one then
and
so
.
If not, then the minimal polynomial is and we must have
It can be proved that is in fact an integer. (using the fact that the product of two primitive polynomials is primitive)
Since it follows that
. The rest is just casework.
SEEMOUS 2013 (unofficial sources)
Here are some of the problems of SEEMOUS 2013.
1. Let be a continuous mapping, such that
Find the form of the map .
2. Let be nonzero matrices such that
and
. Prove that there is an invertible matrix
such that
and
.
3. Let such that there is
, with
. Prove that either
or
.
Torricelli point and angles of 120 degrees
Denote a triangle with angles smaller than
. The point
which minimizes the sum
is called the Torricelli point of the triangle
. One interesting property of the Toricelli point, besides the fact that it minimizes the above sum is that all the angles formed around
are equal and have
.
I will prove here that the fact that the angles around are of
can be derived without any geometric considerations, just from the fact that
is the solution of the problem
The Basic properties of Gamma Convergence
Let be a metric space, and for
let be given
. We say that
-converges to
on
as
, and we write
, if the following conditions hold:
(LI) For every and every sequence
such that
in
we have
(LS) For every there exists a sequence
such that
in
and
The -convergence has the following properties:
1. The -limit
is always lower semicontinuous on
;
2. -convergence is stable under continuous perturbations: if
and
is continuous, then
3. If and
minimizes
over
, then every limit point of
minimizes
over
.
I have seen these properties stated in many places, but the proofs are usually left to the reader. I will try and give the proofs below.
Master 7
(For the context and pervious posts look on the Shape Optimization page for the links)
As a result of the theorem proved in the previous post and of the fact that every -limit is lower semicontinuous we can see that the functional
is lower semicontinuous on the space .
Definition 1 We say that a set of
,
is an admissible configuration if there exist linearly independent vectors
and a continuous function
with zeros precisely at points
such that we have
.
Using the above result we can see that if is an admissible configuration then the functional
defined by
is lower semicontinuous on
where is the unique solution of the system
where is chosen such that all
are positive.
