Potential estimates and gradient boundedness for nonlinear parabolic systems (Q427932)

The authors consider a class of parabolic systems and equations in divergence form modeled by the evolutionary \(p\)-Laplacian system \[ u_t - \text{div} (|Du|^{p-2}Du)=V(x,t) , \] and provide very interesting \(L^\infty\)-bounds for the spatial gradient of solutions \(Du\) via nonlinear potentials of the right hand side datum \(V\). Such estimates are related to those obtained by \textit{T. Kilpeläinen} and \textit{J. Malý} [Acta Math. 172, No. 1, 137--161 (1994; Zbl 0820.35063)] in their celebrated paper for the elliptic case. In turn, the potential estimates found imply optimal conditions for the boundedness of \(Du\) in terms of borderline rearrangement invariant function spaces of Lorentz type. In particular, the authors prove that if \(V\in L(N+2,1)\) then \(Du \in L^\infty_{\text{loc}}\), where \(N\) is the space dimension, and this gives the borderline case of a result proved by \textit{E. DiBenedetto} [Degenerate parabolic equations. Universitext. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag (1993, Zbl 0794.35090)]. Note that the condition \(V \in L(N+2,1)\) is surprisingly independent of \(p\). Lastlty they find explicit forms of local a priori estimates extending those proved by DiBenedetto and valid for the homogeneous case \(V \equiv 0\).