Gradient theory of phase transitions with a rapidly oscillating forcing term

Abstract

We consider the Γ-limit of a family of functionals which model the interaction of a material that undergoes phase transition with a rapidly oscillating conservative vector field. These functionals consist of a gradient term, a double-well potential and a vector field. The scaling is such that all three terms scale in the same way and the frequency of the vector field is equal to the interface thickness. Difficulties arise from the fact that the two global minimizers of the functionals are nonconstant and converge only in the weak L²-topology.