Global second-order estimates in anisotropic elliptic problems

This work deals with boundary value problems for second-order nonlinear elliptic equations in divergence form, which emerge as Euler–Lagrange equations of integral functionals of the Calculus of Variations built upon possibly anisotropic norms of the gradient of trial functions. Integrands with nonpolynomial growth are included in our discussion. The (Formula presented.) -regularity of the stress-field associated with solutions, namely, the nonlinear expression of the gradient subject to the divergence operator, is established under the weakest possible assumption that the datum on the right-hand side of the equation is a merely (Formula presented.) -function. Global regularity estimates are offered in domains enjoying minimal assumptions on the boundary. They depend on the weak curvatures of the boundary via either their degree of integrability or an isocapacitary inequality. By contrast, none of these assumptions is needed in the case of convex domains. An explicit estimate for the constants appearing in the relevant estimates is exhibited in terms of the Lipschitz characteristic of the domains, when their boundary is endowed with Hölder continuous curvatures.