Regularity of the solution of a problem with a two-sided constraint on the boundary for elliptic and parabolic equations (Q5899930)

The authors prove that solutions u of the variational inequality \[ \int_{\Omega}a^{ij}D_ iuD_ j(v-u)+b^ iD_ iu(v-u)+bu(v-u)dx\geq \int_{\Omega}f(v-u)dx \] for all \(v\in {\mathbb{K}}=\{u\in W^{1,2}(\Omega):\phi\leq u\leq \psi\) on \(\partial \Omega \}\) have Hölder continuous first derivatives when the matrix \((a^{ij})\) is uniformly elliptic in \(\Omega\) and the data of the problem are sufficiently smooth, namely, the coefficients satisfy \(a^{ij}\in W^{1,q}\), \(b^ i\) and b are in \(L^ q\), the obstacle \(\phi\) and \(\psi\) are in \(W^{2,q}(\partial \Omega)\) and the inhomogeneous term \(f\in L^ q(\Omega)\) for some \(q>n\). This variational inequality is equivalent to \[ -D_ i(a^{ij}D_ ju)+b'D_ iu+bu=f\text{ in } \Omega, \] \[ \phi \leq u\leq \psi,\quad D(a^{ij}D_ iu\gamma_ j)(u- \phi)(u-\psi)=0\text{ on } \partial \Omega, \] \[ a^{ij}D_ iu\gamma_ j\geq 0\text{ where } u<\psi,\quad a^{ij}D_ iu\gamma_ j\leq 0\text{ where } u>\phi, \] where \(\gamma\) is the outer normal. A similar result is proved for the corresponding parabolic problem.