Double well potential function and its optimization in the n-dimensional real space - Part I

A special type of multi-variate polynomial of degree 4, called the double well potential function, is studied. It is derived from a discrete approx imation of the generalized Ginzburg-Landau functional, and we are interested in understanding its global minimum solution and all local non-global points. The main difficulty for the model is due to its non-convexity. In Part I of the paper, we first characterize the global minimum solution set, whereas the study for local non-global optimal solutions is left for Part II. We show that, the dual of the Lagrange dual of the double well potential problem is a linearly constrained convex minimization problem, which, under a designated nonlin ear transformation, can be equivalently mapped to a portion of the original double well potential function containing the global minimum. In other words, solving the global minimum of the double well potential function is essentially a convex minimization problem, despite of its non-convex nature. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the important features of the problem and the mapping in between.