Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-calculus-of-variations-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2009/3/b/ii/solution
Past exam of the calculus of variations course of the University of Oxford 2009 3 b ii Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
Zero is neither a weak nor a strong local minimizer. For any nonzero smooth zero-trace , Taylor expansion givesThe mixed integral by the endpoint values. Writing and , the quadratic coefficient is . The elementary estimate on makes this at most . Thus arbitrarily small variations decrease the energy. The separate coefficient one on is retained in this calculation.
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