Sobolev and Lipschitz regularity for local minimizers of widely degenerate anisotropic functionals (Q515925)

The main subject studied in the paper is the regularity of local minimizers of functionals of the form \[ \mathfrak{F}(u;\Omega)=\sum_{i=1}^N\int_{\Omega}g_i(u_{x_i})dx+\int_{\Omega}fudx, \] where \(\Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^N\) is an open set, \(N\geq2\), \(g_1,\ldots,g_N:\mathbb{R}\rightarrow\mathbb{R}^+\) are \(C^{1,1}\) convex functions such that \[ C^{-1}(|s|-\delta_i)_+^{p_i-2}\leq g_i^{\prime\prime}(s)\leq C(|s|^{p_i-2}+1)\quad\text{a.e. in } \mathbb{R}, \] for \(i=1,\ldots,N\) and suitable constants \(p_i\geq 2\), \(C>0\) and \(\delta_i\geq0\). Consider the particular case when \(p_1=\cdots=p_l=p\) as well as \(\delta_1=\cdots=\delta_l\) for \(l\in\{1,\ldots,N-1\}\). Let the same property hold for the remaining \(N-l\) dimensions, i.e., \(p_{l+1}=\cdots=p_N=q\) and \(\delta_{l+1}=\cdots=\delta_{N}\). Denote \(v_i=V_i(u_{x_i})\), where \(V_i(x)=\int_0^x\sqrt{g_i^{\prime\prime}(s)}ds\) and \[ \mathbf{p}=(\underbrace{p,\ldots,p}_l,\underbrace{q,\ldots,q}_{N-l}). \] The first main result is concerned with the Sobolev regularity for bounded minimizers provided that \(f\in W_{\mathrm{loc}}^{1,\mathbf{p}^\prime}(\Omega)\). More precisely, sufficient conditions are presented for \(p\), \(q\) and \(N\) that guarantee \(v_i\in W_{\mathrm{loc}}^{1,2}(\Omega)\), for any local minimizer \(u\in W_{\mathrm{loc}}^{1,\mathbf{p}}(\Omega)\cap L_{\mathrm{loc}}^{\infty}(\Omega)\) and \(i=1,\ldots,N\) . In addition, local Lipschitz continuity is proved for the model case \(g_i(s)=(|s|-\delta_i)_+^{p_i}/p_i\) and \(N=2\).