Implicit elliptic differential equations

Let be a bounded domain in ⁿ (n 3) having a smooth boundary, letY be a closed, connected and locally connected subset of ^h , letf be a real-valued function defined on × ^h × ^nh ×Y, and letL be a linear, second-order elliptic operator. In this paper, the existence of strong solutionsu W ^2,p (, ^h ) W ₀ ^1,p (, ^h ) (n<p<+) to the implicit elliptic equationf(x, u, Du, Lu)=0, whereu=(u ₁,u ₂, ...,u _h ),Du=(Du ₁,Du ₂, ...,Du _h ) andLu=(Lu ₁,Lu ₂, ...,Lu _h ), is established. The abstract framework where the equation is studied is that of set-valued analysis.Dedicated to Professor G. Pulvirenti on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday