Regularity of minimizers of vectorial integrals with \(p\)-\(q\) growth (Q1399942)

The authors discuss Lipschitz regularity of local minimizers \(u:\Omega\to \mathbb{R}^N\) (to be taken from a natural energy class) of variational integrals \(F(u)= \int_\Omega f(x,Du(x)) dx\), where \(\Omega\) denotes a bounded domain in \(\mathbb{R}^n\), and \(Du\) is the Jacobican matrix of the vector-valued function \(u\). Here the integrand \(f(x,E)\) is assumed to be \(p\)-uniformly convex at infinity for some exponent \(p> 1\) implying that \(f\) is of lower growth rate \(p\), moreover, the upper growth rate is limited by a second exponent \(q\geq p\). Then, if in addition \(f(x, E)=\widetilde f(x,|E|)\) for \(|E|\gg 1\), and if \(q< p(n+1)/n\), \(Du\) is a locally bounded function. This result is obtained by studying a sequence of regularized integrands with corresponding minimizers for which uniform estimates can be established. It should be noted that for smooth energy densities \(f\) such a result has been established in [\textit{M. Bildhauer}, ``Convex variational problems. Linear, nearly linear and anisotropic growth conditions'', Lect. Notes Math. 1818 (2003; Zbl 1033.49001)] under the weaker assumption \(q< p(n+ 2)/n\).