Simultaneous Sharp-Interface Limits for a Diffuse-Interface Landau–de Gennes Droplet Model

Abstract

Nematic droplet models based on diffuse interfaces involve competing microscopic transition layers whose interaction is lost if the small parameters are sent to zero successively. We study this interaction for the diffuse-interface Landau–de Gennes model of Shi et al., with phase-field thickness $\varepsilon$ and exterior $Q$-tensor relaxation length $κ_\varepsilon$, and show that their relative scale selects the effective sharp-interface theory. Within a regular-interface class, we establish the corresponding sharp-interface limit for every limiting ratio $r=\lim_{\varepsilon\to0}κ/\varepsilon\in[0,+\infty]$. Three qualitatively different regimes emerge. When $r=+\infty$, the two transition layers separate asymptotically and the interfacial costs decouple, recovering the previously obtained iterated limit. When $r\in(0,+\infty)$, the layers overlap and produce a genuinely coupled, $r$-dependent anisotropic surface density. When $r=0$, finite energy forces the interior trace of $Q$ to vanish on the limiting interface. The comparable-scale regime requires a genuinely coupled interfacial analysis. Thus the exterior relaxation length is not merely a regularization parameter: together with the phase-field thickness, it determines the macroscopic surface energy and anchoring law of the sharp-interface limit.