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Applied Mathematics and Optimization, Vol.58, No.1, 111-145, 2008
Semicontinuity and supremal representation in the calculus of variations
We study the weak* lower semicontinuity properties of functionals of the form [GRAPHICS] where Omega is a bounded open set of R-N and u epsilon W-1,W-infinity(Omega). Without a continuity assumption on f (., xi) we show that the supremal functional F is weakly* lower semicontinuous if and only if it is a level convex functional (i.e. it has convex sub-levels). In particular if F is weakly* lower semicontinuous, then it can be represented through a level convex function. Finally a counterexample shows that in general it is not possible to represent F through the level convex envelope of f.
Keywords:supremal functionals;calculus of variations in L-infinity;level convex function;absolute minimizers