Minimization of energy functionals applied to some inverse problems (Q5955601)

The author considers a general class of problems of the minimization of convex integral functionals subject to linear constrains. Using Fenchel duality, he proves the equality of the values of the minimization problem and its associated dual problem. This equality is a variational criterion for the existance of a solution to a large class of inverse problems entering the class of generalized Fredholm integral equations. Some special examples of applications of this abstract result are also presented. In particular, constrained diffusion processes and several marginal problems for stochasatic processes are investigated.