Existence and uniqueness of a solution for a parabolic quasilinear problem for linear growth functionals with \(L^1\) data. (Q5957320)

This paper is concerned with the Dirichlet problem for quasilinear parabolic equations in divergence form for which the energy functional has linear growth: \[ \partial_tu=\text{div}\,{\mathbf a}(x,Du) \text{ in }Q=(0,\infty) \times\Omega, \] \[ u(t,x)=\varphi(x)\text{ on } S=(0,\infty)\times\partial \Omega, \quad u(0,x)=u_0(x)\text{ in }x\in \Omega, \] where \(\Omega\) is a bounded \(C^1\) domain in \(\mathbb{R}^N\), \(u_0\in L^1(\Omega)\), \(\varphi\in L^1(\partial\Omega)\), and \({\mathbf a} (x,\xi) =\nabla_\xi f(x,\xi)\) for a function \(f\) with linear growth as \(\|\xi\| \to \infty\). In the previous paper of the authors [Rev. Mat. Iberoam. (to appear)], existence and uniqueness of solutions of this problem are proved for initial data \(u_0\in L^2(\Omega)\). The purpose of the present paper is to solve this problem for initial and boundary data in \(L^1\). A new concept of solution called entropy solution is introduced. To prove existence the authors use the previous existence results for initial data in \(L^2(\Omega)\) and to prove uniqueness and a comparison principle they foliow the same technique as in \textit{F. Andreu}, \textit{C. Ballester}, \textit{V. Caselles} and \textit{J. M. Mazón} [J. Funct. Anal. 180, 347--403 (2001; Zbl 0973.35109)] which was inspired by the method of doubling variables (both in space and time) introduced by \textit{S. N. Kruzhkov} [Math. USSR, Sb. 10, 217--243 (1970; Zbl 0215.16203)] to prove \(L^1\)-contraction for entropy solutions for scalar conservation laws.