English

Variational problems in $L^\infty$ involving semilinear second order differential operators

Analysis of PDEs 2025-08-20 v3

Abstract

For an elliptic, semilinear differential operator of the form S(u)=A:D2u+b(x,u,Du)S(u) = A : D^2 u + b(x, u , Du), consider the functional E(u)=esssupΩS(u)E_\infty(u) = \mathop{\mathrm{ess \, sup}}_\Omega |S(u)|. We study minimisers of EE_\infty for prescribed boundary data. Because the functional is not differentiable, this problem does not give rise to a conventional Euler-Lagrange equation. Under certain conditions, we can nevertheless give a system of partial differential equations that all minimisers must satisfy. Moreover, the condition is equivalent to a weaker version of the variational problem.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2303.15982,
  title  = {Variational problems in $L^\infty$ involving semilinear second order differential operators},
  author = {Nikos Katzourakis and Roger Moser},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2303.15982},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

21 pages, journal: ESAIM-COCV

R2 v1 2026-06-28T09:37:56.399Z