It is the main goal of this thesis to study the regularity of solutions for a nonlinear elliptic system coming from population segregation, and the free boundary problem that is obtained in the limit as the competition parameter goes to infinity [mathematical symbol]. The main results are existence and Hölder regularity of solutions of the elliptic system, characterization of the limit as a free boundary problem, and Lipschitz regularity at the boundary for the limiting problem. / text

For degenerate elliptic partial differential equations, it is often desirable to show that a weak solution is smooth. The first and most difficult step in this process is establishing local Hölder continuity. Sufficient conditions for establishing continuity have already been documented in [FP], [SW1], and [MRW], and their necessity in [R]. However, the complexity of the equations discussed in those works makes it difficult to understand the core structure of the arguments employed. Here, we present a harmonic-analytic method for establishing Hölder continuity of weak solutions in context of a simple linear equation div(Q?u) = f in a homogeneous space structure in order to showcase the form of the argument. Ad- ditionally, we correct an oversight in the adaptation of the John-Nirenberg inequality presented in [SW1], restricting it to a much smaller class of balls.

[pt] Estudamos duas classes de equações diferenciais parciais, nomeadamente: uma equação de transferência radiativa e uma equação do calor duplamente não-linear. O primeiro modelo envolve uma equação não-local, na presença de um operador de espalhamento. Estuda-se a boa colocação do problema no semi-plano, no regime peaked. Prova-se um lema de averaging, que produz regularidade interior para o problema, além de regularização fracionária para as derivadas temporais da solução. O segundo conjunto de resultados da tese trata de uma equação de Trudinger com graus de não-linearidade distintos. Aproxima-se este problema pela p-equação do calor e importa-se regularidade da última para a primeira. Como consequência, mostra-se um resultado de regularidade melhorada no contexto não homogêneo. / [en] We consider two classes of partial differential equations. Namely: the radiative transfer equation and a doubly nonlinear model. The former concerns a nonlocal problema, driven by a scattering operator. We study the well-posedness of solutions in the peaked regime, for the half-space. A new averaging lemma yields interior regularity for the solutions and improved fractional regularization for the time derivatives. The second model we examine is a Trudinger equation with distinct nonlinearities degrees. Inspired by ideas launched by L. Caffarelli, we resort to approximation methods and prove improved regularity results for the solutions. The strategy is to relate our equation with p-caloric functions.