Structure and classification results for the ∞-elastica problem

Abstract

We consider the following variational problem: among all curves in $\Bbb{R}^n$ of fixed length with prescribed end points and prescribed tangents at the end points, minimise the $L^\infty$-norm of the curvature. We show that the solutions of this problem, and of a generalised version, are characterised by a system of differential equations. Furthermore, we have a lot of information about the structure of solutions, which allows a classification.