Revisited convexity notions for $$L^\infty $$ variational problems

Abstract We address a detailed study of the convexity notions that arise in the study of weak* lower semicontinuity of supremal functionals, as well as those arising by the $$L^p$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msup> <mml:mi>L</mml:mi> <mml:mi>p</mml:mi> </mml:msup> </mml:math> -approximation, as $$p \rightarrow +\infty $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>p</mml:mi> <mml:mo>→</mml:mo> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mi>∞</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> of such functionals. Our quest is motivated by the knowledge we have on the analogous integral functionals and aims at establishing a solid groundwork underlying further research in the $$L^\infty $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msup> <mml:mi>L</mml:mi> <mml:mi>∞</mml:mi> </mml:msup> </mml:math> context.