English

Average gradient localisation for degenerate elliptic equations in the plane

Analysis of PDEs 2026-01-07 v1

Abstract

We consider Lipschitz solutions to the possibly highly degenerate elliptic equation divG(u)=0 {\rm div} G(\nabla u)=0 in B1R2B_1\subset\mathbb{R}^2 , for any continuous strictly monotone vector field G ⁣:R2R2G \colon \mathbb{R}^2 \to \mathbb{R}^2. We show that uu is either C1C^1 at 00, or any blowup limit v(x)=limu(δx)u(0)δv(x)=\lim \frac{u(\delta x)-u(0)}{\delta} along a sequence δ0\delta\to 0 satisfies vDS a.e \nabla v\in \mathcal{D}\cap \mathcal{S} \text{ a.e} . Here, D \mathcal{D} and S\mathcal{S} can be roughly interpreted as the sets where ellipticity degenerates from below and above, that is, the symmetric parts of G \nabla G and (G)1(\nabla G)^{-1} have a zero eigenvalue. This is a strong indication in favor of the expected continuity of H(u)H(\nabla u) for any continuous HH vanishing on DS\mathcal{D}\cap \mathcal{S}. In contrast with previous results in the same spirit, we do not make any assumption on the structure of GG besides its continuity and strict monotony.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2601.03078,
  title  = {Average gradient localisation for degenerate elliptic equations in the plane},
  author = {Thibault Lacombe},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.03078},
  year   = {2026}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T08:52:44.990Z