Homogenization of monotone operators in divergence form with \(x\)-dependent multivalued graphs (Q842513)

The authors prove an homogenization result, in the sense of the H-convergence, for steady equations involving monotone graphs. The original problem is written as \(-\text{div}(d^{\varepsilon })=f\) in a smooth and bounded domain \(\Omega \) of \(\mathbb{R}^{N}\), with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions on \(\partial \Omega \). Here \(f\) belongs to \(W^{-1,p'}(\Omega )\) and \(\text{grad}u^{\varepsilon }\) and \( d^{\varepsilon}\) respectively belonging to \(L^{p}(\Omega ;\mathbb{R}^{N})\) and \(L^{p'}(\Omega ;\mathbb{R}^{N})\) are linked through \( d^{\varepsilon }(x)-\text{grad}u^{\varepsilon }(x)=\varphi ^{\varepsilon}(x,d^{\varepsilon }(x)+\text{grad}u^{\varepsilon }(x))\) for some function \( \varphi ^{\varepsilon }\) which belongs to a set \(M^{\ast}(\alpha,m,m,\Omega)\) of functions. The main result of the paper proves the convergence of \((u^{\varepsilon},d^{\varepsilon})\), up to some subsequence, to a solution \((u,d)\) of a similar problem but involving a limit function \(\varphi^{0}\) which belongs to the set \(M^{\ast}(\alpha ,m,m,\Omega)\). The paper starts proving an existence result for such problems. The main part of the paper is devoted to the convergence result. Notice that the dependence of \(\varphi^{\varepsilon}\) on \(\varepsilon\) is not necessarily obtained through a periodic process. The authors also compare their convergence result with that obtained by \textit{V. Chiad ò-Piat, G. Dal Maso} and \textit{A. Defranceschi} in [Ann. Inst. Henri Poincaré , Anal. Non Linéaire 7, No.~3, 123--160 (1990; Zbl 0731.35033)], using the G-convergence. The paper ends with some results concerning maximal extensions of monotone graphs which extend the well-known results from [\textit{V. Barbu}, Nonlinear semigroups and differential equations in Banach spaces. Leyden, The Netherlands: Noordhoff International Publishing (1976; Zbl 0328.47035)] and [\textit{H. Brézis}, Opérateurs maximaux monotones et semi-groupes de contractions dans les espaces de Hilbert. North-Holland Mathematics Studies Vol. 5. Amsterdam-London: North-Holland Publishing Comp.; New York: American Elsevier Publishing Comp., Inc. (1973; Zbl 0252.47055)].