Extending viscosity solutions to eikonal equations with discontinuous spatial dependence (Q1582458)

The aim of the paper is to ``construct'' and, possibly, to prove the existence of a generalized solution of viscosity type, \(u(.,.)\), of eikonal equations of the form: \[ \sqrt {(u_x)^2 +(u_y)^2}-n(x,y)=0, \;(x,y)\in \Omega, \;u(.,.)|\partial\Omega=g(.,.) \] arising from the so-called ``optical shape-from-shading'' problems; here \(\Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^2\) is assumed to be an open bounded region and the function \(n(.,.)\) is assumed to be \textit{discontinuous} on a subset \(J\subset \overline \Omega\) described as the union of a finite collection, \(\Gamma_1,... \;\Gamma_N\), of simple non-closed \(C^2\) curves at which \(n(.,.)\) has some rather complicated additional properties. The main idea of the author is to define upper and, respectively, lower \textit{continuous approximants}, \(n^\varepsilon(.,.)\searrow n(.,.), \;n_\varepsilon \nearrow n(.,.) \;as \;\varepsilon\to 0_+\), to consider the corresponding \textit{value functions}, \(u^\varepsilon(.,.), \;u_\varepsilon(.,.)\), of certain associated optimal control problems and to prove that they have a common (Lipschitzian) limit, \(u(.,.):=\displaystyle\lim_{\varepsilon\to 0_+} u^\varepsilon(.,.)=\lim_{\varepsilon\to 0_+}u_\varepsilon(.,.)\), which is taken as the ``physically motivated'' solution of the problem. The largest part of the paper (some 18 pages out of 28) is dedicated to a very tedious analysis of the behavior of the approximants, \(n^\varepsilon(.,.), \;n_\varepsilon(.,.), \;u^\varepsilon(.,.), \;u_\varepsilon(.,.)\), around the discontinuity curves, \(\Gamma_1,... \;\Gamma_N\), of \(n(.,.)\).