Existence and uniqueness of a weak solution to the initial mixed boundary value problem for quasilinear elliptic-parabolic equations (Q5947511)

This article studies an initial-boundary value problem for the following elliptic-parabolic equation \[ \partial_tb(u)-\text{div}\{ |\nabla u+k(b(u))\vec{e}|^{m-2} (\nabla u+k(b(u))\vec{e})\}=f(x,t) \] in \(\Omega\times(0,T]\), where \(\Omega\) is an open bounded set in \(\mathbb R^n\), \(m>1\), \(b\) is a nondecreasing function continuous on \(\mathbb R\), \(k\) is a function defined on \(b(\mathbb R)\), imposed certain growth and continuity conditions, and \(\vec{e}\) is a unit vector in \(\mathbb R^n\). The authors establish the existence of weak solutions by essentially following the ideas of \textit{H. W. Alt} and \textit{S. Luckhaus} [Math. Z. 183, 311--341 (1983; Zbl 0508.35046)]. The result for uniqueness is also claimed, but the proof is referred to another paper by the same authors.