Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-calculus-of-variations-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2011/2/a/solution
Past exam of the calculus of variations course of the University of Oxford 2011 2 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
The variational terminology refers to the size of a neighborhood, rather than weak versus strong convergence in a Banach space. The definitions in the two numbered children giveThe second implication holds because smallness in implies smallness in the uniform norm. Reverse implications need not hold.
For differentiable in its slope variable, define the Weierstrass excess functionThe strengthened Weierstrass condition means that some givesIt requires support at nearby heights and nearby reference slopes, while the trial slope is arbitrary. Requiring this only exactly on the curve is the unstrengthened necessary condition.
A standard Weierstrass sufficient condition assumes the usual smoothness of , , the weak Euler-Lagrange equation, a coercively positive second variation, and the strengthened condition above. Explicitly, for some ,for zero-endpoint variations. Then is a strong local minimizer. If the excess is strictly positive for throughout the tube, the strong minimum is strict. The second-variation hypothesis supplies a neighboring field of extremals. Its slope gives the comparison identityfor uniformly close admissible . This explains how the condition controls competitors with large derivatives.
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