Continuity of derivatives of a convex solution to a perturbed one-Laplace equation by $p$-Laplacian

Abstract

We consider a one-Laplace equation perturbed by $p$-Laplacian with $1<p<\infty$. We prove that a weak solution is continuously differentiable ($C^{1}$) if it is convex. Note that similar result fails to hold for the unperturbed one-Laplace equation. The main difficulty is to show $C^{1}$-regularity of the solution at the boundary of a facet where the gradient of the solution vanishes. For this purpose we blow-up the solution and prove that its limit is a constant function by establishing a Liouville-type result, which is proved by showing a strong maximum principle. Our argument is rather elementary since we assume that the solution is convex. A few generalization is also discussed.