An eigenvalue problem for the anisotropic \(\Phi \)-Laplacian (Q2184702)

The authors study a nonlinear eigenvalue problem whose operator of the principal part is described by an anisotropic \(N\)-function. The first main feature of the problem is the fact that diffusion can occur in various directions. The problem considered here is an extension to fully anisotropic elliptic differential equations of that in [\textit{V. Mustonen} and \textit{M. Tienari}, Proc. R. Soc. Edinb. Sect. A 129, 153--163 (1999; Zbl 0926.46030)] and in the same way it is associated with constrained minimization problems for integral functionals that are not necessarily of class \(\mathcal{C}^1\) since no restriction (\(\Delta_2\) or \(\nabla_2\)) is made on the anisotropic \(N\)-functions. Thus, the resulting anisotropic Orlicz-Sobolev spaces are, in general, neither reflexive nor separable. In such a framework, it is well known that the lack of reflexivity is replaced by the idea of complementary systems. In this sense, the authors develop some analysis results relative to the theory of anisotropic Orlicz-Sobolev spaces. The main result concerns the existence of a bounded weak solution of the problem that satisfies a constrained condition. In the proof, the authors start to show the existence of a minimizer by using the lower semi-continuity of the energy functional. To give a meaning to the notion of weak solution, the theorem of implicit functions is used, while the existence of an eigenvalue associated with the minimizer is proved by comparing the kernels of two linear forms. Gathering all these results, the authors show that the minimizer is a weak solution of the problem. In the reviewer's opinion, the article will be of interest to a large audience of researchers.