Existence and regularity of solutions to parabolic-elliptic nonlinear systems

Abstract

In this paper we study the existence and summability of the solutions to the following parabolic-elliptic system of partial differential equations with discontinuous coefficients: \begin{equation*} \begin{cases} u_t - \operatorname{div}(A(x, t) \nabla u) = -\operatorname{div}(u M(x) \nabla ψ) + f(x, t) & \text{in } Ω_T, \\ -\operatorname{div}(M(x) \nabla ψ) = |u|^θ& \text{in } Ω_T, \\ ψ(x, t) = 0 & \text{on } \partial Ω\times (0, T), \\ u(x, t) = 0 & \text{on } \partial Ω\times (0, T), \\ u(x, 0) = 0 & \text{in } Ω. \end{cases} \end{equation*} Here, $Ω$ is an open and bounded subset of $\mathbb R^N$, $N>2$, $θ\in(0,\frac{2}{N})$, $0<T<+\infty$ and $Ω_T=Ω\times(0,T)$. We prove existence results for data $f\in L^1(Ω_T)$ and a corresponding increase in summability that obeys the $L^p$-regularity theorems for parabolic equations proved by Aronson-Serrin and by Boccardo-Dall&#39;Aglio-Gallouët-Orsina. In particular, despite the term $u M(x)\nablaψ$ not being regular enough (since it only belongs to $L^2(Ω_T)$), the solution $u$ belongs to $L^s(Ω_T)\cap L^q(0,T;W^{1, q}_0(Ω))$ for suitable $s>1$ and $q>1$.