A Baire category approach to the bang-bang property (Q1346228)

The authors consider differential inclusions of the form \[ \dot x(t)\in F(t, x(t)), t\in [a, b], \quad x(a)= p,\;x(b)= q,\tag{1} \] where \(F\) is a Hausdorff continuous multifunction from \(\mathbb{R}\times \mathbb{R}^ n\) into \(2^{\mathbb{R}^ n}\) with compact and convex values. Let us denote by \(S^{b, q}_{a, p}\) the set of all Carathéodory solutions of (1). The multifunction \(F\) has the bang-bang property if for every interval \([a, b]\) and every solution \(x\) of (1), there exists a function \(y\) satisfying \[ \dot y(t)\in \text{extr } F(t, y(t)), t\in [a, b],\quad y(a)= p,\;y(b)= q.\tag{2} \] The main result of the paper states that the following conditions are equivalent. i) For every \(a\), \(b\), \(p\), \(q\) such that \(S^{b, q}_{a, p}\neq \emptyset\) the set of solutions of (2) is a \(G_ \delta\) dense set in \(S^{b, q}_{a, p}\), ii) \(F\) has the bang-bang property, iii) For every \(a\), \(b\), \(p\), \(q\) such that \(S^{b, q}_{a,p}\neq \emptyset\) for every \(\varepsilon> 0\) there exists a solution \(y\) of (1) such that \(\int^ b_ a (h(\dot y(t), F(t, y(t)))^ 2 dt< \varepsilon\). For \(z\in \mathbb{R}^ n\) and \(K\) a nonempty compact convex subset of \(\mathbb{R}^ n\), \(h(z, K)\) is defined by \[ h(z, K)= \sup\Biggl\{\Bigl(\int^ 1_ 0 | f(x)- z|^ 2 dx\Bigr)^{1/2}|, f: [0, 1]\to K,\;\int^ 1_ 0 f(x) dx= z\Biggr\}. \] Sufficient conditions for which the above properties are satisfied are given in the paper. For example it is proved that if \(F(t, x)= \phi(t, x)U\), where \(U\subset \mathbb{R}^ n\) is convex, compact and contains the origin, \(\phi\in C(\mathbb{R}\times \mathbb{R}^ n; ]0,\infty[)\) and \(\phi(t,.)\) is convex then \(F\) has the bang-bang property. Other applications to nonconvex control problems [closely related to those studied by the reviewer, J. Optimization Theory Appl. 67, No. 1, 109-132 (1990; Zbl 0711.49004); ibid. 72, No. 1, 199-200 (1992)] are given at the end of the paper.