On the Ternary Ohta–Kawasaki Free Energy and Its One-dimensional Global Minimizers

We study the ternary Ohta–Kawasaki free energy that has been used to model triblock copolymer systems. Its one-dimensional global minimizers are conjectured to have cyclic patterns. However, some physical experiments and computer simulations found triblock copolymers forming noncyclic lamellar patterns. In this work, by comparing the free energies of the cyclic pattern and some noncyclic candidates, we show that the conjecture does not hold for...