On the unit disk $B_1\subset {ℝ}^2$ we study the Moser-Trudinger functional $E\left(u\right)={\int }_{B_1}\left(e^{u^2}-1\right)dx,u\in H_0^1\left(B_1\right)$ and its restrictions ${E|}_{M_{\Lambda }}$, where $M_{\Lambda }:=\{u\in H_0^1\left(B_1\right){:\parallel u\parallel }_{H_0^1}^2=\Lambda \}$ for $\Lambda >0$. We prove that if a sequence $u_k$ of positive critical points of ${E|}_{M_{{\Lambda }_k}}$ (for some ${\Lambda }_k>0$) blows up as $k\to \infty$, then ${\Lambda }_k\to 4\pi$, and $u_k\to 0$ weakly in $H_0^1\left(B_1\right)$ and strongly in $C_{\mathrm{loc}}^1({\overline{B}}_1\setminus \left\{0\right\})$. Using this fact we also prove that when $\Lambda$ is large enough, then ${E|}_{M_{\Lambda }}$ has no positive critical point, complementing previous existence results by Carleson-Chang, M. Struwe and Lamm-Robert-Struwe.

It is noted that the examples provided in the paper "Two-dimensional examples of rank-one convex functions that are not quasiconvex" by M. K. Benaouda and J. J. Telega, Ann. Polon. Math. 73 (2000), 291-295, contain unrecoverable errors.

We consider the problem of minimizing ${\int }_0^{\ell }\sqrt{{\xi }^2+K^2\left(s\right)}\mathrm{d}s$ ∫ 0 ℓ ξ 2 + K 2 ( s )   d s for a planar curve having fixed initial and final positions and directions. The total lengthℓ is free. Here s is the arclength parameter, K(s) is the curvature of the curve and ξ > 0 is a fixed constant. This problem comes from a model of geometry of vision due to Petitot, Citti and Sarti. We study existence of local and global minimizers for this problem. We prove that if for a certain choice of boundary conditions there...

The left-invariant sub-Riemannian problem on the group of motions (rototranslations) of a plane SE(2) is considered. In the previous works [Moiseev and Sachkov, ESAIM: COCV, DOI: 10.1051/cocv/2009004; Sachkov, ESAIM: COCV, DOI: 10.1051/cocv/2009031], extremal trajectories were defined, their local and global optimality were studied. In this paper the global structure of the exponential mapping is described. On this basis an explicit characterization of the cut locus and Maxwell set is obtained....

The left-invariant sub-Riemannian problem on the group of motions (rototranslations) of a plane SE(2) is considered. In the previous works [Moiseev and Sachkov, ESAIM: COCV, DOI: 10.1051/cocv/2009004; Sachkov, ESAIM: COCV, DOI: 10.1051/cocv/2009031], extremal trajectories were defined, their local and global optimality were studied. In this paper the global structure of the exponential mapping is described. On this basis an explicit characterization of the cut locus and Maxwell set is obtained....