An existence result for optimal obstacles (Q1283688)

In the paper the optimization problem: \(\min \{F(g): g \in X(\Omega)\}\) is considered. The cost functional \(F(g)\) usually represents a variational energy associated to obstacle \(g\) which in turn belongs to the class of admissible obstacles defined as \[ X(\Omega) = \Biggl\{g: \Omega \to \mathbb R: g \leq \psi \;\text{ on} \Omega, \int_{\Omega}g\;dx = c\Biggr\} \] with \(\psi \in W_0^{1,p}(\Omega)\) and \(c \in \mathbb R\) fixed. In general such a problem has no solution. Even if the cost functional is regular (i.e., lsc with respect to some natural convergence of obstacles), the minimizing sequence of obstacles may converge to the solution of a new problem which is of relaxed form. To ensure the existence of ``non-relaxed'' solutions the authors admit a monotonicity assumption on cost functionals which are defined on the special class \(X(\Omega)\) ordered by the order between the obstacles defined as the usual order between functions. For instance, they consider the problem \[ \min \Biggl\{\int_{\Omega}f(x,u_g)\;dx: g \leq \psi, \int_{\Omega}g\;dx = c \Biggr\}, \] where \(f:{\Omega} \times {\mathbb R} \to {\bar{\mathbb R}}\) is a non-negative Carathéodory function, \(\psi\) and \(c\) are as above and for every obstacle \(g\) the function \(u_g\) denotes the unique solution of the problem \[ \min \Biggl\{\int_{\Omega}| \nabla u| ^p \;dx: u \in W_0^{1,p}(\Omega), u \geq g \;\text{ in} \Omega \Biggr\}. \] Introducing the so-called \(w\gamma\)-convergence of obstacles (related in some sense to the \(\Gamma\)-convergence of energy functionals) and using the direct method the authors obtain an existence result for the problem above under the assumption that the function \(f(x,\cdot)\) is monotone non-decreasing. Some generalizations of the result to bilateral obstacles are also considered .