Lagrange multipliers and geometric measure theory (Q1066467)

Summary: The authors present some theoretical and numerical remarks about solutions to variational problems with a volume constraint. They first recall some general facts about integrable functions minimizing an elliptic integrand, then pass to the consideration of measurable sets minimizing an integrand depending essentially on the sets' boundaries. Finally, consider the case where the sets are restricted to assume a fixed measure. For this case they present some recent results of other authors, which can be seen as an extension of the classical Lagrange multiplier rule. The numerical experiments are related to this new Lagrange multiplier rule.