On a system of partial differential equations of Monge--Kantorovich type (Q878542)

Let \(\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^N\) be a bounded smooth domain, let \(f\geq 0\) be a bounded continuous function in \(\Omega\) and let \(\rho:\mathbb{R}^N\to \mathbb{R}\) be a smooth convex positively 1-homogeneous function. The authors investigate the following problem \[ -\text{div}(v\; D\rho(Du))=f,\;\;\rho(Du)\leq 1\;\;\text{in}\;\;\Omega;\;\;\rho(Du)=1\;\;\text{in}\;\;\{v>0\}, \] complemented with the conditions \[ u\geq 0,\;\;\;v\geq 0\;\;\text{in}\;\;\Omega;\;\;u=0\;\;\text{on}\;\;\partial\Omega. \] A solution of this problem is a pair \((u,v)\) with \(u\) Lipschitz continuous in \(\overline\Omega\) and \(v\) bounded and continuous in \(\Omega\) satisfying: \(\rho(Du)\leq 1\) a.e. in \(\Omega\), \(u\) is a viscosity solution of \(\rho(Du)=1\) in the open set \(\{x\in\Omega:v(x)>0\}\), and \(v\) satisfies \(-\text{div}(v\; D\rho(Du))=f\) in the sense of distributions. The main result of the paper is the following regularity theorem: If \(\rho\) is the gauge function of a convex body, if \(A\subset \mathbb{R}^N\) is an open bounded set, if \(u\in W^{1,\infty}(A)\) is a solution in the sense of distributions of the equation \(-\text{div}(D\rho(Du))=0\) in \(A\), and if \(\rho(Du)=1\) a.e. in \(A\), then \(u\in C^{1,\alpha}_{loc}(A)\). By using this regularity result, the uniqueness of a pair \((u,v)\) solving the previous problem is proved.