A counterexample to a conjecture of McDanell (Q1822347)

A partially singular optimal control trajectory will contain one or more junctions at which nonsingular and singular subarcs are joined. McDanell's conjecture [\textit{J. P. McDanell} and \textit{W. F. Powers}, SIAM J. Control 9, 161-173 (1971; Zbl 0226.49015)] concerns the necessary conditions for optimality at such a junction. The conjecture is divided into two parts, each part distinguished by the relative magnitudes of two parameters. Until now the conjecture has been proved correct for several different classes of problem. However, this paper presents a partially singular optimal control trajectory containing one junction for which one part of the conjecture is untrue. Attempts to construct a similar trajectory in order to disprove the second part of the conjecture have so far been unsuccessful.