Regularity of quasi-minimizers on metric spaces

Abstract:

Using the theory of Sobolev spaces on a metric measure space we are able to apply calculus of variations and define p-harmonic functions as minimizers of the p-Dirichlet integral. More generally, we study regularity properties of quasi-minimizers of p-Dirichlet integrals in a metric measure space. Applying the De Giorgi method we show that quasi-minimizers, and in particular p-harmonic functions, satisfy Harnack's inequality, the strong maximum principle, and are locally Hölder continuous, if the space is doubling and supports a Poincaré inequality.