Existence of minimizers for brittle fracture problems in linearized elasticity

In this talk I will describe some results obtained in collaboration with Sergio Conti (Bonn), Gilles Francfort (Paris Nord), Flaviana Iurlano (Paris) and Vito Crismale (Palaiseau) on the existence and properties of minimizers of energies which arise in the variational approach to fracture. I will recall the basics of the theory, discuss some mathematical difficulties and describe some approaches to address them.