Lagrange multipliers and transport densities (Q2404485)

The paper under review deals with a stationary variational inequality with nonconstant gradient constraint. Precisely, the authors treat the following problem: under suitable assumptions on \(f\) and \(g\) and for \(\delta\geq0,\) find \((\lambda^\delta,u^\delta)\in L^q(\Omega)\times W^{1,\infty}(\Omega),\) \(q\in(1,\infty),\) such that \[ \begin{cases} -\nabla\cdot(\lambda^\delta\nabla u^\delta)=f & \text{in}\;\Omega,\\ u^\delta=0 & \text{on}\;\partial\Omega,\\ |\nabla u^\delta|\leq g & \text{in}\;\Omega,\\ \lambda^\delta\geq \delta & \text{in}\;\Omega,\\ (\lambda^\delta-\delta)(|\nabla u^\delta|-g)=0 & \text{in}\;\Omega, \end{cases} \] where \(\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^d\) is a bounded open set with Lipschitz continuous boundary. Assuming \(C^2\)-smoothness of the boundary of the not necessarily convex set \(\Omega,\) \(\delta>0,\) \(f\in L^\infty(\Omega),\) \(g\in C^2(\overline{\Omega})\) with \(g>0\) and \(\Delta g^2\leq0,\) the authors prove existence of a solution \((\lambda^\delta,u^\delta)\in L^q(\Omega)\times W^{1,\infty}(\Omega)\) of the above problem for any \(q\in(1,\infty).\) Moreover, there exists a subsequence of solutions \(((\lambda^\delta,u^\delta))_{\delta>0}\) such that \(\lambda^\delta\rightharpoonup\lambda^0\) in \(L^q(\Omega),\) \(u^\delta\rightharpoonup u^0\) in \(W^{1,\infty}(\Omega)\) as \(\delta\to0,\) and \((\lambda^0,u^0)\) solves the problem with \(\delta=0.\) Fixed \(q\geq2,\) it turns out that the results still hold true if \(\Delta g^2\) is bounded from above by a small enough positive constant depending on \(\Omega,\) \(q,\) \(\min_{\overline{\Omega}}g\) and \(\max_{\overline{\Omega}}g.\) The proofs rely on approximation of the problem with \(\delta>0\) by a family of quasilinear elliptic problems and suitable \textit{a priori} estimates for the corresponding solutions.