We establish a quantitative rigidity estimate for two-well frame-indifferent nonlinear energies, in the case in which the two wells have exactly one rank-one connection. Building upon this novel rigidity result, we then analyze solid-solid phase transitions in arbitrary space dimensions, under a suitable anisotropic penalization of second variations. By means of Γ-convergence, we show that, as the size of transition layers tends to zero, singularly perturbed two-well problems approach an effective sharp-interface model. The limiting energy is finite only for deformations which have the structure of a laminate. In this case, it is proportional to the total length of the interfaces between the two phases.

The subject of this paper is the rigorous derivation of a quasistatic evolution model for a linearly elastic-perfectly plastic thin plate. As the thickness of the plate tends to zero, we prove via Γ -convergence techniques that solutions to the three-dimensional quasistatic evolution problem of Prandtl-Reuss elastoplasticity converge to a quasistatic evolution of a suitable reduced model. In this limiting model the admissible displacements are of Kirchhoff-Love type and the stretching and bending components of the stress are coupled through a plastic flow rule. Some equivalent formulations of the limiting problem in rate form are derived, together with some two-dimensional characterizations for suitable choices of the data.

We investigate the edge-isoperimetric problem (EIP) for sets of n points in the triangular lattice by emphasizing its relation with the emergence of the Wulff shape in the crystallization problem. By introducing a suitable notion of perimeter and area, EIP minimizers are characterized as extremizers of an isoperimetric inequality: they attain maximal area and minimal perimeter among connected configurations. The maximal area and minimal perimeter are explicitly quantified in terms of n. In view of this isoperimetric characterizations, EIP minimizers are seen to be given by hexagonal configurations with some extra points at their boundary. By a careful computation of the cardinality of these extra points, minimizers are estimated to deviate from such hexagonal configurations by at most points. The constant is explicitly determined and shown to be sharp.

Graphene samples are identified as minimizers of configurational energies featuring both two- and three-body atomic-interaction terms. This variational viewpoint allows for a detailed description of ground-state geometries as connected subsets of a regular hexagonal lattice. We investigate here how these geometries evolve as the number [Formula: see text] of carbon atoms in the graphene sample increases. By means of an equivalent characterization of minimality via a discrete isoperimetric inequality, we prove that ground states converge to the ideal hexagonal Wulff shape as [Formula: see text]. Precisely, ground states deviate from such hexagonal Wulff shape by at most [Formula: see text] atoms, where both the constant [Formula: see text] and the rate [Formula: see text] are sharp.

A variational model for epitaxially-strained thin films on rigid substrates is derived both by Γ-convergence from a transition-layer setting, and by relaxation from a sharp-interface description available in the literature for regular configurations. The model is characterized by a configurational energy that accounts for both the competing mechanisms responsible for the film shape. On the one hand, the lattice mismatch between the film and the substrate generate large stresses, and corrugations may be present because film atoms move to release the elastic energy. On the other hand, flatter profiles may be preferable to minimize the surface energy. Some first regularity results are presented for energetically-optimal film profiles.