Regularity results for quasiminima of functionals with non-polynomial growth (Q1206869)

Let us consider functionals of the Calculus of Variations of the type \(I(\Omega,v)=\int_ \Omega f(x,Dv)dx\) where \(\Omega\) is a bounded open set of \(\mathbb{R}^ n\) and \(f:\Omega\times\mathbb{R}^ n\to\mathbb{R}\) is a Carathéodory function such that \(A(| z|)\leq f(x,z)\leq c_ 1A(| z|)\). The function \(A:[0,\infty[\to[0,\infty[\) is given satisfying the following condition: (i) there exist \(p,q\) with \(1<p\leq q\) such that \(A(t)/t^ p\) is increasing and \(A(t)/t^ q\) is decreasing. A function \(u\in W^{l,1}_{loc}(\Omega)\) is a \(Q\)-quasiminimum \((Q\geq 1)\) for \(I(\Omega,v)\) iff, for every \(\psi\in W^{1,1}_{loc}(\Omega)\) with compact support, we have \(I(\text{supp} \psi,u)\leq QI(\text{supp} \psi,\;u+\psi)\). In this paper we present a Harnack inequality for nonnegative \(Q\)- quasiminima of \(I(\Omega,v)\). The main result is the following Theorem: Let \(u\geq 0\) be a \(Q\)-quasiminimum of \(I(\Omega,v)\), \(B_ R=B_ R(y)\subset\Omega\) a ball of radius \(R\) centered at \(y\in\Omega\). Then, if \(1<q\leq p^*\), for any \(\sigma\in(0,1)\), we have \(\sup_{B_{\sigma R}}u\leq C\inf_{B_{\sigma R}}u\), where \(C=C(p,q,Q,n,\sigma)\) and \(p^*=pn/(n-p)\). We remark that the previous theorem generalizes a result of E. Di Benedetto and N. Trudinger for functionals with standard growth conditions.