Local boundedness of general minimizers with nonstandard growth (Q1937731)

In this paper, the author considers the local boundedness of minimizers of the functional \[ u\mapsto\int_{\Omega}f(x,u,Du)\;dx, \] where \(\Omega\subseteq\mathbb{R}^{n}\) is open and bounded. Of particular interest is the fact that a rather general structure condition is imposed on \(f\) -- namely, that \(f\) satisfies the general nonstandard growth \[ |z|^{p(x)}-b(x)|y|^{r(x)}-g(x)\leq f(x, y, z)\leq\mu|z|^{p(x)}+b(x)|y|^{r(x)}+g(x), \] where various regularity hypotheses are imposed on the functions appearing on the left- and right-hand sides of the above inequality. From this, the author then deduces a Caccioppoli-type inequality for local minimizers of the functional; the proof of this inequality follows strongly the well-known argument given in Giusti's monograph on the calculus of variations. The paper then concludes with the previously mentioned local boundedness result. Since \(f: \Omega\times\mathbb{R}\times\mathbb{R}^n\rightarrow\mathbb{R}\), one sees that the author works here only in the scalar-valued setting rather than in the setting of vectorial minimizers. \vskip0.25cm The paper is well written and clearly organized. Consequently, reading the article is relatively easy.