Regularity for minimizers of functionals with \(p-q\) growth (Q1294016)

The authors consider the functional \(\int_\Omega f(Du(x)) dx\), \(\Omega\subseteq\mathbb{R}^n\), where \(f\) satisfies some regularity conditions and the inequalities \( m| z| ^p\leq f(z)\leq L(1+| z| ^q) \) for some positive constants \(m,L,p,q\), \(2\leq p<q<p+2\). The theorem claims that if a function \(u\) minimizes the above functional, then \(Du\in L_{loc}^r(\Omega)\) where \(r<pn/(n-p+q-2)\). The proof is based on the convergence of a perturbed regularized functional to the original functional and the estimates for the perturbed minimizers, which can be obtained using a suitable maximum principle.