Harnack inequality for double-phase functionals with Muckenhoupt-type growth functions

Abstract

We investigate a general class of variational integrals under a structural condition imposed on the double-phase function, recently introduced in~\cite{ADKO2026}. In this setting, the strong Harnack inequality for non-negative local quasi-minimizers is established via an appropriate De Giorgi-type iteration argument. Most notably, the proposed analytical approach in this paper provides a new perspective for deriving Harnack-type inequalities for more general variational functionals under a Muckenhoupt-type structural condition on the double-phase function, without relying on the classical coefficient-freezing strategy based on the Hölder continuity of the modulating coefficient and the balance condition on the growth exponents.