Existence, uniqueness and qualitative properties of minima to radially symmetric non-coercive non-convex variational problems (Q5926369)

We are concerned with the problem of existence, uniqueness and qualitative properties of solutions to the radially symmetric variational problem \[ \min_{u\in W^{1,1}_0(B_R)} \int_{B_R} [f(|x|,|\nabla u(x)|)+ h(|x|, u(x))] dx, \] where \(B_R\) is the ball of \(\mathbb{R}^n\) centered at the origin and with radius \(R> 0\), the map \(f:[0,R]\times [0,+\infty[\to \mathbb{R}\cup\{+\infty\}\) is a normal integrand, and \(h: [0,R]\times \mathbb{R}\to \mathbb{R}\) is a convex function of the second variable. This kind of problems, with non-convex Lagrangians with respect to \(\nabla u\), arise in various fields of applied sciences, such as optimal design and nonlinear elasticity.