Mean-field sparse optimal control

We introduce the rigorous limit process connecting finite dimensional sparse optimal control problems with ODE constraints, modelling parsimonious interventions on the dynamics of a moving population divided into leaders and followers, to an infinite dimensional optimal control problem with a constraint given by a system of ODE for the leaders coupled with a PDE of Vlasov-type, governing the dynamics of the probability distribution of the followers. In the classical mean-field theory, one studies the behaviour of a large number of small individuals freely interacting with each other, by simplifying the effect of all the other individuals on any given individual by a single averaged effect. In this paper, we address instead the situation where the leaders are actually influenced also by an external policy maker, and we propagate its effect for the number N of followers going to infinity. The technical derivation of the sparse mean-field optimal control is realized by the simultaneous development of the mean-field limit of the equations governing the followers dynamics together with the Gamma-limit of the finite dimensional sparse optimal control problems.