Calculus of variations on time scales: Weak local piecewise \(C_{\text{rd}}^{1}\) solutions with variable endpoints. (Q1419769)

As the authors state in the Introduction, ``the purpose of this paper is to establish fundamental results in the calculus of variations on time scales with variable endpoints''. In the framework of a so-called ``time scales dynamics'' [e.g., \textit{M. Bohner} (ed.) and \textit{A. Peterson} (ed.), ``Advances in dynamic equations on time scales'' (2003; Zbl 1025.34001)], the main problem in calculus of variations consists in the minimization of the functional \[ {\mathcal F}(y(.)):=K(y(a),y(b))+\int_a^bL(t,y^\sigma(t),y^\Delta(t))\Delta(t) \] subject to the endpoint conditions \[ \varphi(y(a),y(b))=0 \] where \( T=[a,b]\subseteq \mathbb R\) is a closed subset (``time scale''), \(y^\Delta(.)\) denotes a certain ``times scales derivative'', \(y^\sigma(.)\) denotes the composition of \(y(.)\) with a certain ``jump operator'' \(\sigma(.)\), and ``the time scales integal'' \(\int_a^bf(t)\Delta(t)\) is defined as the ''Cauchy integral'' associated to the concept of \(\Delta\)-differentiation. Extending in this rather abstract context the main concepts and results in classical calculus of variations, the authors obtain necessary optimality conditions for a weak local minimum in the form of suitable variants of the Euler-Lagrange equation, transversality conditions and positivity of the second variation as well as a certain second order sufficient optimality condition; these results are shown to contain as particular cases the well-known classical results in the ``continuous case'', \(T=\mathbb R\), as well as in the ``discrete case'', \(T=\mathbb Z\).