Generalized maximum principle in optimal control

Abstract: For an optimal control problem, the concept of a strong local infimum is introduce, for which necessary conditions consisting of some family of "maximum principles" are formulated. If a function delivers a strong local minimum in this problem (and therefore, a~strong local infimum), then this family contains the classical Pontryagin maximum principle. As a corollary, we derive generalized necessary conditions for a strong local minimum for a problem of the calculus of variations. Examples are given to show that the necessary conditions obtained in the present paper generalize and strengthen classical results.