The equilibrium measure for an anisotropic nonlocal energy
José A. Carrillo, J. Mateu, Maria Giovanna Mora, Luca Rondi, Lucia Scardia, Joan Verdera
Abstract
Abstract In this paper we characterise the minimisers of a one-parameter family of nonlocal and anisotropic energies $$I_\alpha $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>I</mml:mi> <mml:mi>α</mml:mi> </mml:msub> </mml:math> defined on probability measures in $${\mathbb {R}}^n$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>R</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mi>n</mml:mi> </mml:msup> </mml:math> , with $$n\ge 3$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>n</mml:mi> <mml:mo>≥</mml:mo> <mml:mn>3</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> . The energy $$I_\alpha $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>I</mml:mi> <mml:mi>α</mml:mi> </mml:msub> </mml:math> consists of a purely nonlocal term of convolution type, whose interaction kernel reduces to the Coulomb potential for $$\alpha =0$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>α</mml:mi> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> and is anisotropic otherwise, and a quadratic confinement. The two-dimensional case arises in the study of defects in metals and has been solved by the authors by means of complex-analysis techniques. We prove that for $$\alpha \in (-1, n-2]$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>α</mml:mi> <mml:mo>∈</mml:mo> <mml:mo>(</mml:mo> <mml:mo>-</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> <mml:mo>,</mml:mo> <mml:mi>n</mml:mi> <mml:mo>-</mml:mo> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> <mml:mo>]</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> , the minimiser of $$I_\alpha $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>I</mml:mi> <mml:mi>α</mml:mi> </mml:msub> </mml:math> is unique and is the (normalised) characteristic function of a spheroid. This result is a paradigmatic example of the role of the anisotropy of the kernel on the shape of minimisers. In particular, the phenomenon of loss of dimensionality, observed in dimension $$n=2$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>n</mml:mi> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> , does not occur in higher dimension at the value $$\alpha =n-2$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>α</mml:mi> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mi>n</mml:mi> <mml:mo>-</mml:mo> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> corresponding to the sign change of the Fourier transform of the interaction potential.