The Euler equation and absolute minimizers of \(L^\infty\) functionals (Q5940559)

In the paper the minimization problem \[ \min\{F(u,\Omega): u\in W^{1,\infty}(\Omega; \mathbb{R}^m),\;u= g\text{ on }\partial\Omega\}\tag{1} \] is considered, where \(\Omega\) is a given open bounded subset of \(\mathbb{R}^n\), the boundary datum \(g\in W^{1,\infty}(\Omega; \mathbb{R}^m)\), and \(F\) is a supremal functional of the form \[ F(u, \Omega)= \text{ess sup}\{f(x, u(x), Du(x)): x\in\Omega\}. \] In a previous paper the authors studied the lower-semicontinuity properties of the supremal functionals and they found that the usual convexity assumptions (for \(m=1\)) of \(f(x,s,\cdot)\) has to be replaced by the more general assumption, called \textit{quasiconvexity} in the paper, which reads \[ f(x, stz_1+ (1- t)z_2)\leq f(x,s, z_1)\vee (1- t)f(x, s,z_2) \] for all \(x,s,z_1, z_2\) and \(t\in [0,1]\). A notion of \textit{absolute minimizer} was introduced by Aronsson; according to this definition a function \(u\) is called an absolute minimizer for problem (1) if \[ F(u, \Omega')\leq F(v,\Omega') \] for all \(\Omega'\subset\subset \Omega\) and all \(v\) such that \(u= v\) on \(\partial\Omega'\). In the paper the existence of absolute minimizers is shown, under some suitable conditions on \(f\). Moreover, every absolute minimizer \(u\) is shown to satisfy the Euler equation \[ f_p(x, u,Du)\cdot D_x(f(x, u,Du))= 0\quad\text{in }\Omega \] in the viscosity sense.