Stochastic control with fixed marginal distributions

We briefly describe the so-called Monge-Kantorovich Problem (MKP for short) which is often referred to as an optimal mass transportation problem and study the stochastic optimal control problem (SOCP for short) with fixed initial and terminal distributions. In particular, we study the so-called Duality Theorem for the SOCP where continuous semimartingales under consideration have a variable diffusion matrix and then discuss the relation between the MKP and the SOCP. We also study the so-called Nelson's Problem, as the SOCP with fixed marginal distributions at each time, to which we give a new approach from the Duality Theorem. We finally consider a class of deterministic variational problems with fixed marginal distributions which is related to the SOCP by extending a class of measures under consideration

Proper efficiency and duality for a new class of nonconvex multitime multiobjective variational problems

In this paper, a new class of generalized of nonconvex multitime multiobjective variational problems is considered. We prove the sufficient optimality conditions for efficiency and proper efficiency in the considered multitime multiobjective variational problems with univex functionals. Further, for such vector variational problems, various duality results in the sense of Mond-Weir and in the sense of Wolfe are established under univexity. The results established in the paper extend and generalize results existing in the literature for such vector variational problems

Analytical Solutions to General Anti-Plane Shear Problems In Finite Elasticity

This paper presents a pure complementary energy variational method for solving anti-plane shear problem in finite elasticity. Based on the canonical duality-triality theory developed by the author, the nonlinear/nonconex partial differential equation for the large deformation problem is converted into an algebraic equation in dual space, which can, in principle, be solved to obtain a complete set of stress solutions. Therefore, a general analytical solution form of the deformation is obtained subjected to a compatibility condition. Applications are illustrated by examples with both convex and nonconvex stored strain energies governed by quadratic-exponential and power-law material models, respectively. Results show that the nonconvex variational problem could have multiple solutions at each material point, the complementary gap function and the triality theory can be used to identify both global and local extremal solutions, while the popular (poly-, quasi-, and rank-one) convexities provide only local minimal criteria, the Legendre-Hadamard condition does not guarantee uniqueness of solutions. This paper demonstrates again that the pure complementary energy principle and the triality theory play important roles in finite deformation theory and nonconvex analysis.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures. Mathematics and Mechanics of Solids, 201

A Duality Approach to Error Estimation for Variational Inequalities

Motivated by problems in contact mechanics, we propose a duality approach for computing approximations and associated a posteriori error bounds to solutions of variational inequalities of the first kind. The proposed approach improves upon existing methods introduced in the context of the reduced basis method in two ways. First, it provides sharp a posteriori error bounds which mimic the rate of convergence of the RB approximation. Second, it enables a full offline-online computational decomposition in which the online cost is completely independent of the dimension of the original (high-dimensional) problem. Numerical results comparing the performance of the proposed and existing approaches illustrate the superiority of the duality approach in cases where the dimension of the full problem is high.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figure

Noether's symmetry theorem for nabla problems of the calculus of variations

We prove a Noether-type symmetry theorem and a DuBois-Reymond necessary optimality condition for nabla problems of the calculus of variations on time scales.Comment: Submitted 20/Oct/2009; Revised 27/Jan/2010; Accepted 28/July/2010; for publication in Applied Mathematics Letter