Average gradient localisation for degenerate elliptic equations in the plane

Abstract: We consider Lipschitz solutions to the possibly highly degenerate elliptic equation $ \dv G(\nabla u)=0 $ in $B_1\subset\R^2 $, for any continuous strictly monotone vector field $ G\colon\R^2\to\R^2$. We show that $u$ is either $C^1$ at $0$, or any blowup limit $v(x)=\lim \frac{u(δx)-u(0)}δ $ along a sequence $δ\to 0$ satisfies $ \nabla v\in \mathcal{D}\cap \mathcal{S} \text{ a.e} $. Here, $ \mathcal{D}$ and $\mathcal{S}$ can be roughly interpreted as the sets where ellipticity degenerates from below and above, that is, the symmetric parts of $ \nabla G$ and $(\nabla G)^{-1}$ have a zero eigenvalue. This is a strong indication in favor of the expected continuity of $H(\nabla u)$ for any continuous $H$ vanishing on $\mathcal{D}\cap \mathcal{S}$. In contrast with previous results in the same spirit, we do not make any assumption on the structure of $G$ besides its continuity and strict monotony.