Some minimization problems for planar networks of elastic curves
In this note we announce some results that will appear in [6] on the minimization of the functional F(Γ) = ∫Γk2 + 1 ds, where Γ is a network of three curves with fixed equal angles at the two junctions. The informal description of the results is accompanied by a partial review of the theory of elasticae and a diffuse discussion about the onset of interesting variants of the original problem passing from curves to networks. The considered energy functional F is given by the elastic energy and a term...