English

A note on Newton's problem of minimal resistance for convex bodies

Optimization and Control 2019-10-03 v2 Classical Analysis and ODEs

Abstract

We consider the following problem: minimize the functional Ωf(u(x))dx\int_\Omega f(\nabla u(x))\, dx in the class of concave functions u:Ω[0,M]u: \Omega \to [0,M], where ΩR2\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^2 is a convex body and M>0M > 0. If f(x)=1/(1+x2)f(x) = 1/(1 + |x|^2) and Ω\Omega is a circle, the problem is called Newton's problem of least resistance. It is known that the problem admits at least one solution. We prove that if all points of Ω\partial\Omega are regular and xf(x)/(yf(y))+{|x|f(x)}/(|y|f(y)) \to +\infty as x/y0|x|/|y| \to 0 then a solution uu to the problem satisfies uΩ=0u\rfloor_{\partial\Omega} = 0. This result proves the conjecture stated in 1993 for Newton's problem.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1908.01042,
  title  = {A note on Newton's problem of minimal resistance for convex bodies},
  author = {Alexander Plakhov},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1908.01042},
  year   = {2019}
}

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