Improved regularity for the parabolic normalized \(p\)-Laplace equation (Q2165650)

Hölder and Sobolev regularity of viscosity solutions of the normalized equation \[ \frac{\partial u}{\partial t} - |\nabla u|^{2-p}\,\nabla\!\cdot\!\bigl(|\nabla u|^{p-2}\nabla u\bigr)\,=\,f(x,t) \] are studied when \(p \approx 2\). As \(p \to 2\) the left-hand side approaches the heat operator \(u_t-\Delta u\). Thus the restriction that \(p\) is sufficiently close to \(2\) should improve the regularity. Here \(f(x,t)\) is continuous and bounded. First, the known local \(C^{1+\alpha,(1+\alpha)/2}\) estimate is proved again. Then a local \(W^{2,1;q}\) estimate is obtained for \textit{every} finite \(q>1\). The gain of keeping \(p\) \textit{very} close to \(2\) is that the range of \(q\) is unrestricted. It was previously known that this holds with \(q < 2 + \delta\) for some \(\delta > 0\), but in a much wider range of \(p\), including \(1< p < 3\). The equation is first regularized. An approximation method due to Caffarelli is essential.