A finer singular limit of a single-well Modica--Mortola functional and its applications to the Kobayashi--Warren--Carter energy

An explicit representation of the Gamma limit of a single-well Modica–Mortola functional is given for one-dimensional space under the graph convergence which is finer than conventional $L^1$-convergence or convergence in measure. As an application, an explicit representation of a singular limit of the Kobayashi-Warren-Carter energy, which is popular in materials science, is given. Some compactness under the graph convergence is also established. Such formulas, as well as compactness, is useful to characterize the limit of minimizers the Kobayashi-Warren-Carter energy. To characterize the Gamma limit under the graph convergence, a new idea which is especially useful for one-dimensional problem is introduced. It is a change of parameter of the variable by arc-length parameter of its graph, which is called unfolding by the arc-length parameter in this paper.