A Free boundary problem for the $p(x)$- Laplacian

Abstract

We consider the optimization problem of minimizing $\int_{\Omega}|\nabla u|^{p(x)}+ \lambda \chi_{\{u>0\}} dx$ in the class of functions $W^{1,p(\cdot)}(\Omega)$ with $u-\phi_0\in W_0^{1,p(\cdot)}(\Omega)$, for a given $\phi_0\geq 0$ and bounded. $W^{1,p(\cdot)}(\Omega)$ is the class of weakly differentiable functions with $\int_\Omega |\nabla u|^{p(x)} dx<\infty$. We prove that every solution $u$ is locally Lipschitz continuous, that it is a solution to a free boundary problem and that the free boundary, $\Omega\cap\partial\{u>0\}$, is a regular surface.