On the dual formulation of obstacle problems for the total variation and the area functional (Q1641890)

The very interesting paper under review deals with variational problems with unilateral obstacles over a bounded open set \(\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^n.\) More precisely, the authors investigate minimization problems for the total variation \[ \int_\Omega |Du|\;dx \] and for the area functional \[ \int_\Omega \sqrt{1+|Du|^2}\;dx, \] under the Dirichlet boundary condition \[ u=u_0\quad \text{on }\;\partial\Omega \] and the one-sided constraint \[ u\geq \psi\quad \text{on }\;\Omega \] for a given obstacle \(\psi.\) By means of convex analysis techniques, certain dual maximization problems are identified for bounded divergence-measure fields, and duality formulas and pointwise relations are established between the BV minimizers and the dual maximizers. These general results lead, in particular, to a full characterization of BV minimizers in terms of Euler equations with measure data. The results obtained apply also to very general obstacles such as BV obstacles, thin obstacles, and boundary obstacles, and they include information on exceptional sets and up to the boundary. In some cases the limit behavior of \(p\)-Laplace type obstacle problems for \(p\searrow 1\) is characterized as well. The approach adopted depends crucially on new versions of the classical Anzellotti type pairings [\textit{G. Anzellotti}, Ann. Mat. Pura Appl., 135, No. 4, 293--318, (1984; Zbl 0572.46023)], which involve general divergence-measure fields and specific representatives of BV functions, combined with fine results on (BV) capacities and one-sided approximation.