Higher differentiability for weak solutions of elliptic systems with nonstandard growth conditions (Q1331669)

The paper is concerned with elliptic systems \[ - \sum^n_{i= 1} D_i\{a^\alpha_i(Du(x))\}= 0,\quad x\in \Omega,\quad \alpha= 1,\dots, N,\tag{1} \] satisfying the following nonstandard growth condition: \(a_i\in C^1(\mathbb{R}^{nN})\), \(a_i= (a^1_i,\dots, a^N_i)\) \(\forall i= 1,\dots, n\) and for some constants \(m, M, q_1,\dots, q_N, \theta\), \[ m \sum^n_{i= 1} (\theta+ |\xi_i|^2)^{(q_i- 2)/2} |\lambda_i|^2\leq \sum^n_{i, j= 1} \sum^N_{\alpha, \beta= 1} {\partial a^\alpha_i\over \partial\xi^\beta_j} (\xi) \lambda^\alpha_i \lambda^\beta_j\leq M \sum^n_{i= 1} (\theta+ |\xi_i|^2)^{(q_i- 2)/2} |\lambda_i|^2\tag{2} \] for every \(\xi, \lambda\in \mathbb{R}^{nN}\), where \(D_i= \partial/\partial x_i\), \(D= \text{grad } u\), \(\xi= \{\xi^\alpha_i\}\), \(\lambda= \{\lambda^\alpha_i\}\), \(i= 1,\dots, n\), \(\alpha= 1,\dots, N\); \(|\xi_i|^2= \sum^N_{\alpha= 1} (\xi^\alpha_i)^2\). For constants \(m, M, q_1,\dots, q_n,\theta\) verifying the conditions \(0\leq m\leq M\); \(0\leq \theta\leq 1\); \(2\leq q_1\leq q_2\leq\cdots\leq q_n\), the author proves a different kind of regularity of solutions (1) depending on the degeneration or non-degeneration of the ellipticity (2).