AbstractLet n, $N \in {\open N}$ with $\Omega \subseteq {\open R}^n$ open. Given ${\rm H} \in C^2(\Omega \times {\open R}^N \times {\open R}^{Nn})$, we consider the functional
1$${\rm E}_\infty (u,{\rm {\cal O}})\, : = \, \mathop {{\rm ess}\,\sup}\limits_{\rm {\cal O}} {\rm H}(\cdot, u,{\rm D}u),\quad u\in W_{{\rm loc}}^{1,\infty} (\Omega, {\open R}^N),\quad {\rm {\cal O}}{\Subset}\Omega.$$
The associated PDE system which plays the role of Euler–Lagrange equations in $L^\infty $ is
2$$\left\{\matrix{{\rm H}_{P}(\cdot, u, {\rm D}u)\, {\rm D}\left({\rm H}(\cdot, u, {\rm D} u)\right) = \, 0, \hfill \cr {\rm H}(\cdot, u, {\rm D} u) \, [\![{\rm H}_{P}(\cdot, u, {\rm D} u)]\!]^\bot \left({\rm Div}\left({\rm H}_{P}(\cdot, u, {\rm D} u)\right)- {\rm H}_{\eta}(\cdot, u, {\rm D} u)\right) = 0,\hfill}\right.$$
where $[\![A]\!]^\bot := {\rm Proj}_{R(A)^\bot }$. Herein we establish that generalised solutions to (2) can be characterised as local minimisers of (1) for appropriate classes of affine variations of the energy. Generalised solutions to (2) are understood as ${\cal D}$-solutions, a general framework recently introduced by one of the authors.
The classical theory of calculus of variations for generalized functions
