Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-calculus-of-variations-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2009/1/b/iii/solution
Past exam of the calculus of variations course of the University of Oxford 2009 1 b iii Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
If an admissible attained the infimum, nonnegativity and would force almost everywhere, so its continuous Sobolev representative would be identically zero. Its derivative would then vanish almost everywhere, but the other integrand term would equal . This is impossible. Equivalently, zero energy would simultaneously require and almost everywhere. Thus
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