Regularity of stable solutions of $p$-Laplace equations through geometric Sobolev type inequalities

Abstract

In this paper we prove a Sobolev and a Morrey type inequality involving the mean curvature and the tangential gradient with respect to the level sets of the function that appears in the inequalities. Then, as an application, we establish \textit{a priori} estimates for semi-stable solutions of $-\Delta_p u= g(u)$ in a smooth bounded domain $\Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^n$. In particular, we obtain new $L^r$ and $W^{1,r}$ bounds for the extremal solution $u^\star$ when the domain is strictly convex. More precisely, we prove that $u^\star\in L^\infty(\Omega)$ if $n\leq p+2$ and $u^\star\in L^{\frac{np}{n-p-2}}(\Omega)\cap W^{1,p}_0(\Omega)$ if $n>p+2$.