Necessary and sufficient conditions for existence of solutions of a variational problem involving the curl (Q1770125)

Necessary and sufficient conditions are established for the existence of solutions to the problem \[ \min\left\{\int_\Omega f({\text{ curl}}u(x))dx : u\in u_{z_0}+W^{1,\infty}_0(\Omega;{\mathbb R}^3)\right\}, \] where \(\Omega\) is an open subset of \({\mathbb R}^3\), \(f\colon{\mathbb R}^3\to{\mathbb R}\) is continuous, \(u_{z_0}\) is a function with \(\text{ curl}\,u_{z_0}=z_0\), and \(z_0\) is a given vector in \({\mathbb R}^3\). If \(f^{**}\) is the convex envelope of \(f\), the above conditions are expressed in terms of strict convexity of \(f^{**}\) in at least two directions. An existence result, in the set of the functions in \(C^0(\overline\Omega;{\mathbb R}^3)\) with curl in \(L^\infty(\Omega;{\mathbb R}^3)\), for the solutions of the differential inclusion \[ \begin{cases}{\text{ curl}}\,u(x)\in E &{\text{ for a.e. }} x\in\Omega\cr u(x)=\phi(x) & {\text{ for every }} x\in\partial\Omega,\end{cases} \] is established as well, where \(E\) is compact, and \(\text{ curl}\,\phi\) is piecewise constant.