We propose a very weak type of generalized distance called weak τ -function and use it to weaken the assumptions about lower semicontinuity in existing formulations of Ekeland’s variational principle for a kind of minimizers of a set-valued mapping, which is different from the Pareto minimizer, and in recent results which are equivalent to Ekeland’s variational principle.

In this article, we establish necessary conditions for optimality in stochastic control of systems governed by stochastic differential equations with nonsmooth coefficients. The approach used is based on the approximation of the nonsmooth coefficient by smooth one which generate a sequence of smooth control problems. Ekeland’s variational principle is then applied to obtain a sequence of nearly...

We describe a dissipation principle/variational principle which may be useful in modeling motion in small viscous systems and provide brief illustrations to brownian motor or molecular rachet situations which are found in intracellular transport. Monge-Kantorovich mass transport and Wasserstein metric play an interesting role in these developments. Some properties of the system that ensure the ...

Well known from the sixties, the pressure of e.g. massless φ theory may be written as a series of 2PI-diagrams (skeletons) with the lines fully dressed. Varying the self–energy Π in this expression, it turns into a functional u [Y ] having a maximum in function space at Y = Π . There is also the Feynman–Jensen thermal variational principle v [S], a potentially non–perturbative tool. Here action...

We consider a class of alloys and ceramics with equilibria described by non-attainable infima of non-quasiconvex variational integrals. Such situations frequently arise when atomic lattice structure plays an important role at the mesoscopic continuum level. We prove that standard variational approaches associated with gradient based relaxation of non-quasiconvex integrals in Banach or Hilbert s...

Abstract. We use a new variational method—based on the theory of anti-selfdual Lagrangians developed in [2] and [3]—to establish the existence of solutions of convex Hamiltonian systems that connect two given Lagrangian submanifolds in R . We also consider the case where the Hamiltonian is only semi-convex. A variational principle is also used to establish existence for the corresponding Cauchy...

A recently developed variational principle of virtual dissipation along with a new approach to the thermodynamics of open systems is applied to coupled mass and heat transfer in a porous solid containing a fluid. General differential field equations are derived directly from the variational principle. A general energy flux theorem is formulated. Vapor-liquid phase transition and capillary conde...

We consider the nonlinear eigenvalue problem −div ( |∇u|∇u ) = λ|u|u in Ω, u = 0 on ∂Ω, where Ω is a bounded open set in R with smooth boundary and p, q are continuous functions on Ω such that 1 < infΩ q < infΩ p < supΩ q, supΩ p < N , and q(x) < Np(x)/ (N − p(x)) for all x ∈ Ω. The main result of this paper establishes that any λ > 0 sufficiently small is an eigenvalue of the above nonhomogene...

Like mechanics and electrodynamics, the fundamental laws of the thermodynamics of dissipative processes can be compressed into a variational principle. This variational principle both in its differential (local) and in integral (global) forms was formulated by Gyarmati helped by the present author in 1965. This principle was applied to several fields of irreversible processes: first of all, his...