Vectorial Hamilton-Jacobi equations with rank one affine dependence on the gradient (Q1567526)

This paper deals with the issue of the existence of solutions to Dirichlet problems for vectorial stationary Hamilton-Jacobi equations of the form \[ \begin{cases} H\biggl(x,u(x) \bigr),\;\Phi\bigl(\nabla u(x)\bigr) \biggr) =0\text{ for a.e. }x\in \Omega,\\ u=u_0 \text{ on }\partial \Omega,\end{cases} \] where \(\Omega\) is an open, bounded subset of \(\mathbb{R}^N\), and the unknown function \(u\) as well as the boundary datum \(u_0\) are \(\mathbb{R}^N\)-valued, Lipschitz continuous functions on \(\Omega\). The Hamiltonian function \(H:\Omega \times \mathbb{R}^N \times\mathbb{R} \to\mathbb{R}\) is supposed to be continuous and to depend on the gradient matrix \(\nabla u(x)\) through a non-constant, rank one affine function \(\Phi\) defined on the space of all \(N\times N\) real matrices. The motivation for studying Hamilton-Jacobi equations of the above form comes from non-quasi-convex variational problems arising in various branches of applied sciences such as elasticity theory, for instance. Finally, we have to remark that the vectorial nature of this problem rules out the possibility of applying the viscosity methods developed by Crandall and Lions.