The quasi-minimizer of integral functionals with \(m(x)\) growth conditions (Q1968644)

This paper deals with the regularity for the gradient of quasiminimizers of the integral functional \[ I(u)= \int_\Omega f(x,u(x), Du(x)) dx, \] where \(\Omega\) in an open subset of \(\mathbb{R}^n\) and \(f\) satisfies non-standard \(m(x)\)-growth assumptions, i.e., \[ a_0|z|^{m(x)}- b(x)|u|^{r(x)}- g(x)\leq f(x,u,z)\leq a|z|^{m(x)}+ b(x)|u|^{r(x)}+ g(x), \] where \(0< a_0\leq a\), \(a\geq 1\), \(b\geq 0\) are constants, \(g(x)\) is a nonnegative \(L^1\) function over \(\Omega\), \(m(x)\) and \(r(x)\) are continuous functions over \(\overline\Omega\) with \(1< m(x)\leq r(x)< m^*(x)\) where \(m^*(x)= {m(x)\over n-m(x)}\) if \(m(x)< n\) or \(m^*(x)= \infty\) otherwise. The authors introduce the functional class \(W^{1,m(x)}\) of the functions \(u\in W^{1,1}\) such that \[ \int_\Omega|Du(x)|^{m(x)} dx< \infty \] and study the properties of the quasiminimizers of the functional \(I\) in such class by giving the relationship between the notion of quasiminimizers and weak solution of elliptic equation of divergence form. Moreover, they obtain some regularity result which includes high integrability, local boundedness and Hölder continuity.