New embedding results for double phase problems with variable exponents and a priori bounds for corresponding generalized double phase problems (Q6077923)

The manuscript is focused on the study of special classes of double-phase functionals. Let $\Omega \subseteq \mathbb{R}^N$ ($N \geq 2$) be a bounded domain with a Lipschitz boundary $\partial \Omega$ and consider the principal operator \[ \Delta_{p} u+\Delta_{q}^{\mu} u, \quad u \in W^{1,H}(\Omega), \] where $p,q \in C(\overline{\Omega})$ with $1<p(z)<q(z)<N$ for all $z \in \overline{\Omega}$. Given $r \in (1,\infty)$ and $\mu \in L^1(\Omega)$, $\mu(z)\geq 0$ for a.a. $z \in \Omega$, by $\Delta_{r}^\mu$ we denote the weighted $r$-Laplace differential operator defined by \[ \Delta_{r}^\mu u= \mbox{div }(\mu(z)|\nabla u|^{r-2}\nabla u). \] When $\mu\equiv 1$, then we have the usual $r$-Laplace differential operator denoted by $\Delta_r$. The double-phase differential operator is the sum of two such operators and corresponds to the following energy functional \[ u \to \int_\Omega [|\nabla u|^p+\mu(z)|\nabla u|^q ]dz. \] The integrand in this functional, is the function \[ H(z,x)=|x|^p+\mu(z)|x|^q \quad \text{ for all }z \in \Omega,\text{ all }x \in \mathbb{R}^N. \] The right functional framework to deal with the double-phase operator is provided by the Musielak-Orlicz-Sobolev spaces. Here, the authors discuss how to obtain better embedding results for this setting, with respect to the known ones. Based on the obtained results, the authors also discuss the boundedness of weak solutions to certain Dirichlet and Neumann problems.