Strong solutions to a parabolic equation with linear growth with respect to the gradient variable (Q1706622)

Let \(\Omega\) be a smooth bounded domain of \(\mathbb{R}^N\), \(N\geq 1\), and consider a function \(f\in C^1(\mathbb{R}\times\mathbb{R}^N)\) such that \(\xi\mapsto f(z,\xi)\) is convex for all \(z\in\mathbb{R}\), \(\partial_z f\in L^\infty(\mathbb{R}\times \mathbb{R}^N)\), and there are positive constants \(C_0\), \(D_0\), and \(C_1\) such that \[ |\nabla_\xi f(z,\xi)|\leq 1\;, \qquad C_0 |\xi|-D_0 \leq f(z,\xi) \leq C_1 \left( 1+ |\xi| + |z| \right) \] for all \((z,\xi)\in \mathbb{R}\times \mathbb{R}^N\). Assume also that \(sf(z,\xi/s)\to |\xi|\) as \(s\to 0\) for all \((z,\xi)\in \mathbb{R}\times \mathbb{R}^N\) and set \(\mathbf{a}=\nabla_\xi f\). The initial boundary value problem \[ \partial_t u = \mathrm{div}(\mathbf{a}(u,\nabla u)) \;\text{ in }\; (0,T)\times\Omega\;, \] supplemented with no-flux boundary conditions \(\mathbf{a}(u,\nabla u)\cdot \mathbf{n}=0\) on \((0,T)\times\partial\Omega\) and an initial condition \(u(0)=u_0\) is shown to have a strong solution for \(u_0\in BV(\Omega)\), which satisfies in particular \(\partial_t u \in L^2((0,T)\times\Omega)\). If \(u_0\in BV(\Omega)\cap L^2(\Omega)\), then \(u\) also belongs to \(C([0,T];L^2(\Omega))\) and satisfies the usual energy identity. The existence of a strong solution is also established for \(u_0\in L^2(\Omega)\). Moreover, equivalence between strong solutions and entropy solutions is provided. Since \(\mathbf{a}\) is bounded, the problem under study lacks coercivity and solutions are constructed by a compactness method in a \(BV\)-setting with respect to the space variable. The starting point is the approximation by the pseudoparabolic equation \[ \partial_t u = \mathrm{div}(\mathbf{a}(u,\nabla u)) + \sqrt{\varepsilon} \Delta u + \varepsilon \Delta\partial_ t u \;\text{ in }\; (0,T)\times \Omega\;, \] also supplemented with no-flux boundary conditions.