Variational Problems with Percolation: Dilute Spin Systems at Zero Temperature

We study the asymptotic behavior of dilute spin lattice energies by exhibiting a continuous interfacial limit energy computed using the notion of Γ-convergence and techniques mixing Geometric Measure Theory and Percolation while scaling to zero the lattice spacing. The limit is not trivial above a percolation threshold. Since the lattice energies are not equi-coercive, a suitable notion of limit magnetization must be defined, which can be characterized by two phases separated by an interface. The macroscopic surface tension at this interface is characterized through a first-passage percolation formula, which highlights interesting connections between variational problems and percolation issues. A companion result on the asymptotic description on energies defined on paths in a dilute environment is also given. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media New York.