Continuum Limits of Discrete Systems without Convexity Hypotheses

Abstract

We describe the variational limit of one-dimensional nearest-neighbour systems of interactions, under no structure hypotheses on the discrete energy densities. We show that the continuum limit is characterized by a bulk and a interfacial energy density, which can be explicitly computed from the discrete energies through operations of limit, scaling and regularization that highlight possible bulk oscillations and multiple cracking.