We investigate the value function of the Bolza problem of the Calculus of Variations $$
V (t,x)=\inf \{\int_{0}^{t} L (y(s),y'(s))ds + ϕ(y(t)) : y \in W^{1,1} (0,t; R^n) ; y(0)=x \}, $$ with a lower semicontinuous Lagrangian $L$ and a final cost $ϕ$, and show that it is locally Lipschitz for $t>0$ whenever $L$ is locally bounded. It also satisfies Hamilton-Jacobi inequalities in a generalized sense.
When the Lagrangian is continuous, then the value function is the unique lower semicontinuous solution to the corresponding Hamilton-Jacobi equation, while for discontinuous Lagrangian we characterize the value function by using the so called contingent inequalities.
This paper is devoted to the autonomous Lagrange problem of the calculus of variations with a discontinuous Lagrangian. We prove that every minimizer is Lipschitz continuous if the Lagrangian is coercive and locally bounded. The main difference with respect to the previous works in the literature is that we do not assume that the Lagrangian is convex in the velocity. We also show that, under some additional assumptions, the DuBois-Reymond necessary condition still holds in the discontinuous case. Finally, we apply these results to deduce that the value function of the Bolza problem is locally …
We prove the uniqueness of the viscosity solution to the Hamilton-Jacobi equation associated with a Bolza problem of the Calculus of Variations, assuming that the Lagrangian is autonomous, continuous, superlinear, and satisfies the usual convexity hypothesis. Under the same assumptions we prove also the uniqueness, in a class of lower semicontinuous functions, of a slightly different notion of solution, where classical derivatives are replaced only by subdifferentials. These results follow from a new comparison theorem for lower semicontinuous viscosity supersolutions of the Hamilton-Jacobi eq…
We consider Hamilton--Jacobi equations, where the Hamiltonian depends discontinuously on both the spatial and temporal location. Our main results are the existence and well--posedness of a viscosity solution to the Cauchy problem. We define a viscosity solution by treating the discontinuities in the coefficients analogously to ``internal boundaries''. By defining an appropriate penalization function, we prove that viscosity solutions are unique. The existence of viscosity solutions is established by showing that a sequence of front tracking approximations is compact in $L^\infty$, and that the…
Let $H$ be a bounded and Lipschitz continuous function. We consider discontinuous viscosity solutions of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation $U_{t}+H(U_x)=0$ and signed Radon measure valued entropy solutions of the conservation law $u_{t}+[H(u)]_x=0$. After having proved a precise statement of the formal relation $U_x=u$, we establish estimates for the (strictly positive!) times at which singularities of the solutions disappear. Here singularities are jump discontinuities in case of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation and signed singular measures in case of the conservation law.
We consider the simplest example of a time-dependent first order Hamilton-Jacobi equation, in one space dimension and with a bounded and Lipschitz continuous Hamiltonian which only depends on the spatial derivative. We show that if the initial function has a finite number of jump discontinuities, the corresponding discontinuous viscosity solution of the corresponding Cauchy problem on the real line is unique. Uniqueness follows from a comparison theorem for semicontinuous viscosity sub- and supersolutions, using the barrier effect of spatial discontinuities of a solution. We also prove an exis…
We consider a Bolza-type optimal control problem for a dynamical system described by a fractional differential equation with the Caputo derivative of an order $α\in (0, 1)$. The value of this problem is introduced as a functional in a suitable space of histories of motions. We prove that this functional satisfies the dynamic programming principle. Based on a new notion of coinvariant derivatives of the order $α$, we associate the considered optimal control problem with a Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation. Under certain smoothness assumptions, we establish a connection between the value function…
The non-exponential Schilder-type theorem in Backhoff-Veraguas, Lacker and Tangpi [Ann. Appl. Probab., 30 (2020), pp. 1321-1367] is expressed as a convergence result for path-dependent partial differential equations with appropriate notions of generalized solutions. This entails a non-Markovian counterpart to the vanishing viscosity method. We show uniqueness of maximal subsolutions for path-dependent viscous Hamilton-Jacobi equations related to convex super-quadratic backward stochastic differential equations. We establish well-posedness for the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation associated to …
A new concept of viscosity solutions, namely, the Hausdorff continuous viscosity solution for the Hamilton-Jacobi equation is defined and investigated. It is shown that the main ideas within the classical theory of continuous viscosity solutions can be extended to the wider space of Hausdorff continuous functions while also generalizing some of the existing concepts of discontinuous solutions.
This paper deals with junction conditions for Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equations for finite horizon control problems on multi-domains. We consider two different cases where the final cost is continuous or lower semi-continuous. In the continuous case we extend the results of "Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations on multi-domains" by the second and third authors in a more general framework with switching running costs and weaker controllability assumptions. The comparison principle has been established to guarantee the uniqueness and the stability results for the HJB system on such multi-doma…
We consider a family of optimal control problems in the plane with dynamics and running costs possibly discontinuous across an oscillatory interface $Γ_ε$. The oscillations of the interface have small period and amplitude, both of the order of $ε$, and the interfaces $Γ_ε$ tend to a straight line $Γ$. We study the asymptotic behavior as $ε\to 0$. We prove that the value function tends to the solution of Hamilton-Jacobi equations in the two half-planes limited by $Γ$, with an effective transmission condition on $Γ$ keeping track of the oscillations of $Γ_ε$.
In this paper we set up a rigorous justification for the reinitialization algorithm. Using the theory of viscosity solutions, we propose a well-posed Hamilton-Jacobi equation with a parameter, which is derived from homogenization for a Hamiltonian discontinuous in time which appears in the reinitialization. We prove that, as the parameter tends to infinity, the solution of the initial value problem converges to a signed distance function to the evolving interfaces. A locally uniform convergence is shown when the distance function is continuous, whereas a weaker notion of convergence is introdu…
We study Hamilton-Jacobi equations on networks in the case where Hamiltonians are quasi-convex with respect to the gradient variable and can be discontinuous with respect to the space variable at vertices. First, we prove that imposing a general vertex condition is equivalent to imposing a specific one which only depends on Hamiltonians and an additional free parameter, the flux limiter. Second, a general method for proving comparison principles is introduced. This method consists in constructing a vertex test function to be used in the doubling variable approach. With such a theory and such a…
We consider a family of optimal control problems in the plane with dynamics and running costs possibly discontinuous across a two-scale oscillatory interface. Typically, the amplitude of the oscillations is of the order of $ε$ while the period is of the order of $ε$ 2. As $ε$ $\rightarrow$ 0, the interfaces tend to a straight line $Γ$. We study the asymptotic behavior of the value function as $ε$ $\rightarrow$ 0. We prove that the value function tends to the solution of Hamilton-Jacobi equations in the two half-planes limited by $Γ$, with an effective transmission condition on $Γ$ keeping trac…
This paper is concerned with the study of a model case of first order Hamilton-Jacobi equations posed on a "junction", that is to say the union of a finite number of half-lines with a unique common point. The main result is a comparison principle. We also prove existence and stability of solutions. The two challenging difficulties are the singular geometry of the domain and the discontinuity of the Hamiltonian. As far as discontinuous Hamiltonians are concerned, these results seem to be new. They are applied to the study of some models arising in traffic flows. The techniques developed in the …
In this paper, we study the Cauchy problem for the following Hamilton-Jacobi equation \bbal\bca \pa_tu-\De u=|\na u|^2,\quad t>0, \ x\in \R^d,\\ u(0,x)=u_0, \quad \quad x\in \R^d. \eca\end{align*} We show that the solution map in Besov spaces $B^0_{\infty,q}(\R^d),1\leq q\leq \infty$ is discontinuous at origin. That is, we can construct a sequence initial data $\{u^N_0\}$ satisfying $||u^N_0||_{B^0_{\infty,q}(\R^d)}\rightarrow 0, \ N\rightarrow \infty$ such that the corresponding solution $\{u^N\}$ with $u^N(0)=u^N_0$ satisfies \bbal ||u^N||_{L^\infty_T(B^0_{\infty,q}(\R^d))}\geq c_0, \qquad \…
Given a coercive Hamiltonian which is quasi-convex with respect to the gradient variable and periodic with respect to time and space at least "far away from the origin", we consider the solution of the Cauchy problem of the corresponding Hamilton-Jacobi equation posed on the real line. Compact perturbations of coercive periodic quasi-convex Hamiltonians enter into this framework for example. We prove that the rescaled solution converges towards the solution of the expected effective Hamilton-Jacobi equation, but whose "flux" at the origin is "limited" in a sense made precise by the authors in …
Characteristic curves of a Hamilton-Jacobi equation can be seen as action minimizing trajectories of fluid particles. However this description is valid only for smooth solutions. For nonsmooth "viscosity" solutions, which give rise to discontinuous velocity fields, this picture holds only up to the moment when trajectories hit a shock and cease to minimize the Lagrangian action. In this paper we discuss two physically meaningful regularisation procedures, one corresponding to vanishing viscosity and another to weak noise limit. We show that for any convex Hamiltonian, a viscous regularization …
We consider an optimal control on networks in the spirit of the works of Achdou et al. (2013) and Imbert et al. (2013). The main new feature is that there are entry (or exit) costs at the edges of the network leading to a possible discontinuous value function. We characterize the value function as the unique viscosity solution of a new Hamilton-Jacobi system. The uniqueness is a consequence of a comparison principle for which we give two different proofs, one with arguments from the theory of optimal control inspired by Achdou et al. (2014) and one based on partial differential equations techn…
We study the well-posedness of Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations on subsets of $\mathbb{R}^d$ in a context without boundary conditions. The Hamiltonian is given as the supremum over two parts: an internal Hamiltonian depending on an external control variable and a cost functional penalizing the control. The key feature in this paper is that the control function can be unbounded and discontinuous. This way we can treat functionals that appear e.g. in the Donsker-Varadhan theory of large deviations for occupation time measures. To allow for this flexibility, we assume that the internal Hamiltoni…
The paper studies a system of first order Hamilton-Jacobi equations with discontinuous coefficients, arising from a model of deterministic optimal debt management in infinite time horizon, with exponential discount and currency devaluation. The existence of an equilibrium solution is obtained by a suitable concatenation of backward solutions to the system of Hamilton-Jacobi equations. A detailed analysis of the behavior of the solution as the debt-ratio-income $x^*\to +\infty$ is also provided.
We consider stochastic mean field games for which the state space is a network. In the ergodic case, they are described by a system coupling a Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation and a Fokker-Planck equation, whose unknowns are the invariant measure m, a value function u, and the ergodic constant $ρ$. The function u is continuous and satisfies general Kirchhoff conditions at the vertices. The invariant measure m satisfies dual transmission conditions: in particular, m is discontinuous across the vertices in general, and the values of m on each side of the vertices satisfy special compatibility co…
We prove that the viscosity solution to a Hamilton-Jacobi equation with a smooth convex Hamiltonian of the form $H(x,p)$ is differentiable with respect to the initial condition. Moreover, the directional Gâteaux derivatives can be explicitly computed almost everywhere in $\mathbb{R}^N$ by means of the optimality system of the associated optimal control problem. We also prove that, in the one-dimensional case in space and in the quadratic case in any space dimension, these directional Gâteaux derivatives actually correspond to the unique duality solution to the linear transport equation with di…
The widespread application of modern machine learning has increased the need for robust statistical algorithms. This work studies one such fundamental statistical measure known as the Tukey depth. We study the problem in the continuum (population) limit. In particular, we derive the associated necessary conditions, which take the form of a first-order partial differential equation. We discuss the classical interpretation of this necessary condition as the viscosity solution of a Hamilton-Jacobi equation, but with a non-classical Hamiltonian with discontinuous dependence on the gradient at zero…
