Elliptic inequalities with lower-order terms and \(L^1\) data in Musielak-Orlicz spaces (Q2302010)

This article concerns the existence of solutions in Musielak spaces for the unilateral problem associated with nonlinear elliptic equations of the form \[-\operatorname{div}a(x,\nabla u)-\operatorname{div}\Phi(x,u)+g(x,u,\nabla u)=f\] considered in an open bounded Lipschitz subset \(\Omega\) of \(\mathbb{R}^N\). The main feature of the paper is that there are no minimal or maximal assumptions on the growth of the field \(a\) relaxing the Musielak functions from the \(\Delta_2\)-condition and thus leading to nonreflexive Musielak spaces. Despite the fact that the techniques used by the authors are so familiar and so far standard, it is an interesting and non-trivial extension of the previous results. The authors consider a source term \(f\) belonging to \(L^1(\Omega)\) and hence the solution one looks for does not belong in general to the energy space. This is the case for such equations having very weak data (\(L^1\), Radon measure, etc.). The problem is studied on a convex set defined by an obstacle measurable function. Using an approximate scheme and a compactness method, the authors prove the existence of a solution defined by means of the truncation function. Solving elliptic partial differential equations in nonreflexive Musielak spaces is a very interesting topic in the isotropic case as well as the anisotropic one. Many problems and challenges are raised such as the densness, compactness, etc..