A unified framework for analyzing the existence of ground states in wide classes of elastic complex bodies is presented here. The approach makes use of classical semicontinuity results, Sobolev mappings and cartesian currents. Weak diffeomorphisms are used to represent macroscopic deformations. Sobolev maps and cartesian currents describe the inner substructure of the material elements. Balance equations for irregular minimizers are derived. A contribution to the debate about the role of the balance...

A unified framework for analyzing the existence of ground states in wide classes of elastic complex bodies is presented here. The approach makes use of classical semicontinuity results, Sobolev mappings and Cartesian currents. Weak diffeomorphisms are used to represent macroscopic deformations. Sobolev maps and Cartesian currents describe the inner substructure of the material elements. Balance equations for irregular minimizers are derived. A contribution to the debate about the role of the balance...