Characterization of generalized Young measures generated by symmetric gradients (Q524316)

This work establishes a characterization theorem for generalized Young measures generated by symmetric derivatives of functions of Bounded Deformation (BD) in the spirit of the classical Kinderlehrer-Pedregal theorem. Characterization theorems are of particular use in the relaxation of minimization problems for non-convex integral functionals, where one passes from a functional defined on functions to one defined on Young measures. The main result of the paper is Theorem 1.1, formulated in the Introduction and proved in Section 4. It places Young measures in duality with symmetric-quasiconvex functions with linear growth. The proof follows the ``local'' strategy developed in [\textit{F. Rindler}, J. Funct. Anal. 266, No. 11, 6335--6371 (2014; Zbl 1305.49019)] for the characterization of BV-Young measures. The necessity part follows from a lower semicontinuity theorem. For the sufficiency part, first are characterized ``special'' Young measures that can be generated by sequences in BD, given in Section 3. The ``local'' proof strategy combines blow-up arguments with the singular structure theorem in BD, which was recently proved by the authors. As an application of the characterization it is shown how an atomic part in a BD-Young measure can be split off in generating sequences.