Integral representation for a class of \(C^ 1\)-convex functionals (Q1900611)

Let \(\Omega\subset R^n\) be an open set, \(1 < p < + \infty\), and let \(F : W^{1,p} (\Omega, R^m) \times {\mathcal A} (\Omega) \to [0, + \infty]\), where \({\mathcal A} (\Omega)\) denotes the class of all open subsets \(A\) of \(\Omega\). The paper is concerned with an integral characterization of all functionals \(F\) satisfying the following four properties: (i) (lower semicontinuity) for every \(A \in {\mathcal A} (\Omega)\), \(u \mapsto F(u,A)\) is lower semicontinuous on \(W^{1,p} (\Omega, R^m)\); (ii) (measure) for every \(u \in W^{1,p} (\Omega, R^m)\), \(A \mapsto F(u,A)\) is the trace of a Borel measure in \(\Omega\); (iii) (locality) \(F(u,A) = F(v,A)\) whenever \(u(x) = v(x)\) for almost every \(x \in A\); (iv) \((C^1\)-convexity) for any Lipschitz function \(\varphi \in C^1 (\Omega, [0,1])\) we have \[ F \bigl( \varphi u + (1 - \varphi) v, A \bigr) \leq F(u,A) + F(v,A) \quad \forall u,v \in W^{1,p} (\Omega, R^m),\;A \in {\mathcal A} (\Omega). \] It is proved that \(F\) satisfies (i)--(iv) if and only if there exist positive Borel measures \(\mu, \nu\) in \(\Omega\) and a Borel function \(f(x,s)\) such that \(\mu\) does not charge sets with 0 \(p\)-capacity, \(f(x, \cdot)\) is convex in \(R^m\) for any \(x \in \Omega\) and \[ F(u,A) = \int_Af \bigl( x, \widetilde u(x) \bigr) d \mu (x) + \nu (A), \] where \(\widetilde u\) is the quasi continuous representative of \(u\). This result will be used by Defranceschi and Vitali in the analysis of the asymptotic behaviour of sequences of obstacle problems.