Variational Problems with Nonconvex, Noncoercive, Highly Discontinuous Integrands: Characterization and Existence of Minimizers (Q4537796)

Let \(-\infty<a<b<+\infty\), \(f\colon[a,b]\times{\mathbb R}^n\to\;]-\infty,+\infty]\) be \({\mathcal L}\times{\mathcal B}_n\)-measurable (in general not necessarily convex, or coercive, or continuous). For \(p\in[1,+\infty]\), the paper is concerned with the study of the minimization of \[ F(v)=\int_a^bf(t,v'(t))dt \] in the class \[ {\mathcal H}_p=\bigg\{v\in W^{1,p}([a,b];{\mathbb R}^n) : \int_a^bf(t,v'(t))dt\text{ is well defined, }v(a)=0,\;v(b)=d\bigg\}. \] It is proved that \(u_0\in{\mathcal H}_1\) is a \(W^{1,p}\)-strong local minimizer for \(F\) if and only if \(F(u_0)=\min_{v\in{\mathcal H}_p}\int_a^bf^{**}(t,v'(t))dt\), and that this condition is equivalent to the Euler-Lagrange inclusion \(c\in\partial f(t,u_0'(t))\) a.e. \(t\in[a,b]\) for some \(c\in{\mathbb R}^n\). A similar characterization is also obtained for weak local minimizers. As a consequence, if for every \(t\in[a,b]\) we set \(C_t=\{z\in{\mathbb R}^n : f(t,z)=f^{**}(t,z)\}\), it is proved that \(F\) admits a minimum in \({\mathcal H}_p\) if and only if there exists \(u_0\in{\mathcal H}_p\) such that \(\int_a^bf^{**}(t,u_0'(t))dt=\min_{v\in{\mathcal H}_p}\int_a^bf^{**}(t,v'(t))dt\) and \(u_0'(t)\in\text{ co}(C_t)\) for a.e. \(t\in[a,b]\). The existence of minimizers for \(F\) is also discussed as a function of \(d\), and the set of the elements \(d\) such that \(F\) admits a minimum in \({\mathcal H}_p\) is described. The case when \(f(t,z)=\phi(t)h(z)\) is also discussed together with some examples.