On the Viscosity Solutions of Parabolic p-Laplacian Equations with Capillary-Type Boundary Conditions

Abstract

In this paper, we establish the well-posedness and large-time asymptotic behavior of viscosity solutions to singular/degenerate parabolic $p$-Laplacian equations with general capillary-type boundary conditions, including Neumann and prescribed contact angle cases, on strictly convex domains. By establishing a gradient estimate independent of the $C^0$ norm of the solution via the maximum principle, and by analyzing the problem through an approximation procedure together with associated elliptic eigenvalue problems, we prove the existence, uniqueness, and asymptotic behavior of solutions. For the elliptic problem with Neumann boundary conditions, we first focus on flat domains with the zero Neumann condition. By reflecting $u$ across the flat boundary $T_1$ and then using inf- and sup-convolution arguments in the reflected domain, we obtain the $C^{1,α}$ result. For the general elliptic case, we obtain sharp global $C^{1,α}$ regularity by flattening the boundary and employing compactness arguments together with an ``improvement of flatness'' iteration. With an extra condition in the iteration, we can also deal with the singular case $1<p<2$. In the parabolic setting, the spatial Hölder regularity of $Du$ follows from elliptic estimates combined with the Lipschitz continuity of $u$ in time, which in turn yields joint Hölder continuity in $(x,t)$. Extensions to non-convex domains are also discussed by incorporating a suitable forcing term.

Theorems & Definitions (60)

• Theorem 1.1
• Theorem 1.2
• Theorem 1.3
• Theorem 1.4
• Theorem 1.5
• Theorem 1.6
• Theorem 1.7
• Theorem 1.8
• Theorem 1.9
• Definition 2.1