Simplifying the computation of weak-$\star$ second subderivatives of convex functionals via $Γ$-convergence

Abstract

We prove (under some mild assumptions) that the strong-strong twice epidifferentiability of a convex functional is equivalent to the weak-$\star$ twice epidifferentiability of its conjugate functional. Further, the corresponding subderivatives are (up to scaling) conjugates of each other. This result can be used to facilitate the computation of weak-$\star$ second subderivatives, which are crucial ingredients in no-gap second-order optimality conditions. We also show that weak-$\star$ second subderivatives are invariant under suitable changes of the underlying function space setting.