Two Slope Functions Minimizing Fractional Seminorms and Applications to Misfit Dislocations

We consider periodic piecewise affine functions, defined on the real line, with two given slopes, one positive and one negative, and prescribed length scale of the intervals where the slope is negative. We prove that, in such a class, the minimizers of s-fractional Gagliardo seminorm densities, with 0<1/2, are in fact periodic with the minimal possible period determined by the prescribed slopes and length scale. Then, we determine the asymptotic behavior of the energy density as the ratio between the length of the two intervals, where the slope is constant, vanishes. Our results, for s=1/2, have relevant applications to the van der Merwe theory of misfit dislocations at semicoherent straight interfaces. We consider two elastic materials having different elastic coefficients and casting parallel lattices having different spacing. As a byproduct of our analysis, we prove the periodicity of optimal dislocation configurations and we provide the sharp asymptotic energy density in the semicoherent limit as the ratio between the two lattice spacings tends to one.