Value Functions for Bolza Problems with Discontinuous Lagrangians and Hamilton-Jacobi Inequalities

Abstract

We investigate the value function of the Bolza problem of the Calculus of Variations $$ V (t,x)=\inf \{\int_{0}^{t} L (y(s),y'(s))ds + \phi(y(t)) : y \in W^{1,1} (0,t; R^n) ; y(0)=x \}, $$ with a lower semicontinuous Lagrangian $L$ and a final cost $\phi$, 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.