Partial regularity in non-linear elasticity (Q1598173)

The author extends partial regularity results of \textit{N. Fusco} and \textit{J. E. Hutchinson} [J. Aust. Math. Soc., Ser. A 57, No.~2, 158-169 (1994; Zbl 0864.35032)] obtained for minimizers of functionals like \[ \int\limits_{\Omega} f^1 (Du) + \sum_{j=2}^k f^j (\Lambda_{j} Du) dx, k = \min \{n, N\}, \] to the ``anisotropic case'' \[ \int\limits_{\Omega} f^1 (x, u, Du) + \sum_{j=2}^k f^j (x, u, \Lambda_{j} Du) dx. \] Here the \(f^j\) are functions of class \(C^2\), uniformly strictly convex with respect to the last variable and Hölder continuous with respect to the first pair of variables. \(\Omega\) denotes an open subset of \(\mathbb{R}^n, u\) is a function \(\Omega \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^N\), and \(\Lambda_{j} Du\) stands for the vector of all \(j\)-minors of the matrix \(Du\). The proof of the partial regularity result uses the blow-up technique. Since no higher integrability property is available, the author has to avoid a freezing technique. Instead of this he investigates the asymptotic behaviour of a class of properly scaled functionals. The proof is carried out for the case \(n = N = 2\), the general case is treated in the last section of the paper.