A note on the Hodge theory for functionals with linear growth

We study the Hodge decomposition of L ¹-(and measure-) differential forms over a compact manifold without boundary, giving positive results and counterexamples. The theory is then applied to the relaxation and minimization, in cohomology classes, of convex functionals with linear growth. This corresponds to a non-linear version of the Hodge theory, in the spirit of L. M. Sibner and R. J. Sibner [SS]. Received: 19 November 1997 / Revised version: 18 May 1998