  We study the behavior of atomistic models in general dimensions under
uniaxial tension and investigate the system for critical fracture loads. We
rigorously prove that in the discrete-to-continuum limit the minimal energy
satisfies a particular cleavage law with quadratic response to small boundary
displacements followed by a sharp constant cut-off beyond some critical value.
Moreover, we show that the minimal energy is attained by homogeneous elastic
configurations in the subcritical case and that beyond critical loading
cleavage along specific crystallographic hyperplanes is energetically
favorable. In particular, our results apply to mass spring models with full
nearest and next-to-nearest pair interactions and provide the limiting minimal
energy and minimal configurations.
