Plasticity as the $${\Gamma}$$ Γ -Limit of a Two-dimensional Dislocation Energy: The Critical Regime Without the Assumption of Well-Separateness

Abstract

In this paper, a strain-gradient plasticity model is derived from a mesoscopic model for straight parallel edge dislocations in an infinite cylindrical crystal. The main difference to existing work is that in this work the well-separateness of disloactions is not assumed. In order to prove meaningful lower bounds the ball construction technique, which was developed in the context of Ginzburg-Landau by Jerrard and Sandier, is adapted and modified. To overcome the difficulty of a loss of rigidity on thin annuli during the ball construction a combination of combinatorial arguments and local modifications of the occurring elastic strains is presented.