A Picone identity for variable exponent operators and applications

Abstract

Abstract In this work, we establish a new Picone identity for anisotropic quasilinear operators, such as the p(x)-Laplacian defined as div(|∇ u| p(x)−2 ∇ u). Our extension provides a new version of the Diaz-Saa inequality and new uniqueness results to some quasilinear elliptic equations with variable exponents. This new Picone identity can be also used to prove some accretivity property to a class of fast diffusion equations involving variable exponents. Using this, we prove for this class of parabolic equations a new weak comparison principle.