Strongly nonlinear elliptic variational unilateral problems in Orlicz space (Q2491399)

This article deals with elliptic variational inequalities in Orlicz-Sobolev spaces. More precisely the following problem is considered: Find \(u\in K_\psi\) satisfying the inequality: \[ \int_\Omega a(x,u,\nabla u)\nabla(v-u)\,dx+\int_\Omega g(x,u,\nabla u)(v-u)\,dx\geq \langle f,v-u\rangle\tag{1} \] \[ \forall v\in K_\psi\cap L^\infty(\Omega). \] Here \(Au =-\text{div}(a(x, u,\nabla u))\) is a Leray-Lions operator on the its domain \(D(A)\subset W_0^1 L_M (\Omega)\), the Orlicz-Sobolev space, and \(g(x, u,\nabla u)\) is a nonlinear term with ``natural'' growth with respect to \(|\nabla u|\) and satisfies the ``classical'' sign condition. The right-hand side \(f\) belongs to the ``dual'' space \(W^{-1}E_{\bar M}(\Omega)\), \[ K_\psi = \{v\in W_0^1 L_M (\Omega)\mid v\geq\psi\text{ a. e. in }\Omega\}, \] \(\Omega\) denotes a bounded open set with the segment property in \(\mathbb R^n\). The authors require a suitable coercivity condition (see condition A4 in the paper) on the operator \(A\), natural growth assumptions on \(a\) and \(g\), a convenient hypothesis on the convex set \(K_\psi\) (see condition A5 and Remark 3.1 in the paper) and prove that there exists a function \(u\in K_\psi\) such that \(g(x,u,\nabla u)\in L^1 (\Omega)\), and satisfying condition (A4). The authors construct a sequence of approximating unilateral problems, then, by using appropriate test functions, they obtain a priori estimates for the solutions of the approximating problems and prove the convergence of the solutions of the approximate problems to a solution of the initial problem.