An existence result for nonlinear elliptic equations in Musielak-Orlicz-Sobolev spaces (Q351254)

In this paper, the authors study the following variational boundary value problems for quasi-linear equations \[ A(u)=f \;\;\text{in}\;\Omega, \leqno{(P)} \] where \(\Omega \) is an open subset of \(\mathbb{R}^n\) and the operator \(A\) is of the form \[ A(u)=\sum_{|\alpha |\leq m}(-1)^{|\alpha|}D^{\alpha}A_\alpha(x, u, \nabla u,\dots,\nabla^m u). \] The authors first establish some imbedding theorems in \(W^mL_\varphi (\Omega)\) for a general Musielak-Orlicz function \(\varphi\). Second, they obtain the existence result for the problem \((P)\) when the conjugate function of \(\varphi\) has the \(\Delta_2\) property. In particular, the authors improve the existence result for the problem \((P)\) in the framework of variable exponent Sobolev spaces \(W^{m, p(x)}(\Omega)\) where \(\varphi(x,t)=t^{p(x)}\) for more general exponents \(p(x)\).