Title: Characterization of optimal carbon nanotubes under stretching and validation of the Cauchy-Born rule,
Abstract: Carbon nanotubes are modeled as point configurations and investigated by
minimizing configurational energies including two-and three-body interactions.
Optimal configurations are identified with local minima and their fine geometry
is fully characterized in terms of lower-dimensional problems. Under moderate
tension, we prove the existence of periodic local minimizers, which indeed
validates the so-called Cauchy-Born rule in this setting.