Neumann problems and isocapacitary inequalities (Q2467816)

The authors are concerned with a priori estimates for solutions to nonlinear elliptic problems with homogeneous Neumann boundary conditions of the form \[ \begin{cases} -\text{div}(a(x,u,\nabla u)) = f(x), & x \in \Omega,\\ a(x,u,\nabla u) \cdot {\mathbf n} = 0, & \text{on } \partial \Omega. \end{cases}\tag{1} \] Here \(\Omega\) is a connected open subset of \(\mathbb R^n\), with finite Lebesgue measure, \(a\) is a Carathéodory function satisfying, for some \(p > 1\), the ellipticity condition \[ a(x,t,\xi) \geq |\xi|^p, \] \(f \in L^1(\Omega)\) and \({\mathbf n}\) denotes the outward unit normal on \(\partial \Omega\). There are no explicit assumptions concerning the regularity of \(\partial \Omega\) and entropy solutions (in the sense of the paper [\textit{P. Bénilan} et al., Ann. Sc. Norm. Super Pisa, Cl. Sci. (4) 22, 241--273 (1995; Zbl 0866.35037)]) considered. The main purpose is to obtain a priori estimates for solutions and their gradients relying upon isocapacitary inequalities, and extending previous results based on isoperimetric inequalities (see, for example, the papers [\textit{G. Talenti}, Ann. Sc. Norm. Super. Pisa, Cl. Sci., IV. Ser. 3, 697--718 (1976; Zbl 0341.35031), Ann. Mat. Pura Appl., IV. Ser. 120, 159-184 (1979; Zbl 0419.35041)]). The connection between two types of inequalities is illustrated and several estimates of the solutions of (1) in \(L^p\), Lorentz and \(W^{1,p}\) spaces are proved.