Nonoccurrence of the Lavrentiev phenomenon for nonconvex variational problems (Q2575849): Difference between revisions

The paper is concerned with the study of the nonoccurrence of the Lavrentiev phenomenon for two classes of nonconvex variational problems for integral functionals of the type \[ I(u)=\int_a^b f(t,v(t),v'(t))\,dt, \] where \(v\) is a Banach-valued function satisfying given boundary conditions in \(a\) and \(b\). More precisely, if \((X,\| \cdot\| )\) is a Banach space, if \(W^{1,1}(a,b;X)\) is the set of all the functions \(x: [a,b]\to X\) for which there exists a Bochner integrable \(x': [a,b]\to X\) such that \(x(t)=x(a)+\int_a^t x'(s)\,ds\) for every \(t\in[a,b]\), if \(f\) satisfies suitable coerciveness and continuity assumptions, and if \(z_1\), \(z_2\in X\), it is first proved that the infima \[ \inf\{I(v) : v\in W^{1,1}(a,b;X),\;v(a)=z_1,\;v(b)=z_2\} \] and \[ \inf\{I(v) : v\in W^{1,1}(a,b;X),\;\| v'(\cdot)\| \in L^\infty([a,b]),\;v(a)=z_1,\;v(b)=z_2\} \] are equal. The second main result of the paper proves that, again under coerciveness and continuity assumptions on \(f\), for every \(M>0\) there exists \(K>0\) such that for each \(z_1\), \(z_2\in X\) with \(\| z_1\| \), \(\| z_2\| \leq M\) and each \(x\in W^{1,1}(a,b;X)\) with \(v(a)=z_1\), \(v(b)=z_2\), and meas\(\{t\in[a,b] : \| x'(t)>K\}>0\) there exists \(y\) in the same space and satisfying the same boundary conditions such that \(I(y)<I(x)\) and \(\| y'(t)\| \leq K\) for almost every \(t\in[a,b]\). From these results some corollaries in significant cases are also deduced.