On optimal control in a nonlinear interface problem described by hemivariational inequalities

This article is devoted to the existence of optimal controls in various control problems associated with a novel nonlinear interface problem on an unbounded domain with non-monotone set-valued transmission conditions. This interface problem involves a nonlinear monotone partial differential equation in the interior domain and the Laplacian in the exterior domain. Such a scalar interface problem models non-monotone frictional contact of elastic infinite media. The variational formulation of the interface problem leads to a hemivariational inequality (HVI), which, however, lives on the unbounded domain, and thus cannot be analyzed in a reflexive Banach space setting. Boundary integral methods lead to another HVI that is amenable to functional analytic methods using standard Sobolev spaces on the interior domain and Sobolev spaces of fractional order on the coupling boundary. Broadening the scope of this article, we consider extended real-valued HVIs augmented by convex extended real-valued functions. Under a smallness hypothesis, we provide existence and uniqueness results; moreover, we establish a stability result with respect to the extended real-valued function as a parameter. Based on the latter stability result, we prove the existence of optimal controls for four kinds of optimal control problems: distributed control on the bounded domain, boundary control, simultaneous boundary-distributed control governed by the interface problem, and control of the obstacle driven by a related bilateral obstacle interface problem.