Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-calculus-of-variations-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2010/1/b/i/solution

Zero is a strict weak local minimizer, but is not a strong local minimizer. Put . Since , the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality gives , and therefore
For sufficiently small , pointwise. Hence
with equality only when . Thus zero is a strict weak local minimizer of a variational integral.
For the strong claim, define a Lipschitz triangular wave
It has zero endpoint values, , and almost everywhere. Thus , while is nonzero on a set of positive measure. Consequently
These uniformly small competitors disprove the strong local minimizer of a variational integral property.

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