Regularity of solutions to higher-order integrals of the calculus of variations
arXiv:0707.2816 · doi:10.1080/00207720802184733
Abstract
We obtain new regularity conditions for problems of calculus of variations with higher-order derivatives. As a corollary, we get non-occurrence of the Lavrentiev phenomenon. Our main regularity result asserts that autonomous integral functionals with a Lagrangian having coercive partial derivatives with respect to the higher-order derivatives admit only minimizers with essentially bounded derivatives.