Piecewise constant profiles minimizing total variation energies of Kobayashi-Warren-Carter type with fidelity

Abstract: We consider a total variation type energy which measures the jump discontinuities different from usual total variation energy. Such a type of energy is obtained as a singular limit of the Kobayashi-Warren-Carter energy with minimization with respect to the order parameter. We consider the Rudin-Osher-Fatemi type energy by replacing relaxation term by this type of total variation energy. We show that all minimizers are piecewise constant if the data is continuous in one-dimensional setting. Moreover, the number of jumps is bounded by an explicit constant involving a constant related to the fidelity. This is quite different from conventional Rudin-Osher-Fatemi energy where a minimizer must have no jump if the data has no jumps. The existence of a minimizer is guaranteed in multi-dimensional setting when the data is bounded.