Wild solutions to scalar Euler-Lagrange equations

Abstract

We study very weak solutions to scalar Euler-Lagrange equations associated with quadratic convex functionals. We investigate whether $W^{1,1}$ solutions are necessarily $W^{1,2}_{\operatorname{loc}}$, which would make the theories by De Giorgi-Nash and Schauder applicable. We answer this question positively for a suitable class of functionals. This is an extension of Weyl's classical lemma for the Laplace equation to a wider class of equations under stronger regularity assumptions. Conversely, using convex integration, we show that outside this class of functionals, there exist $W^{1,1}$ solutions of locally infinite energy to scalar Euler-Lagrange equations. In addition, we prove an intermediate result which permits the regularity of a $W^{1,1}$ solution to be improved to $W^{1,2}_{\operatorname{loc}}$ under suitable assumptions on the functional and solution.