We construct two new one-parameter families of monotonicity formulas to study the free boundary points in the lower dimensional obstacle problem. The first one is a family of Weiss type formulas geared for points of any given homogeneity and the second one is a family of Monneau type formulas suited for the study of singular points. We show the uniqueness and continuous dependence of the blowups at singular points of given homogeneity. This allows to prove a structural theorem for the singular set.
Our approach works both for zero and smooth non-zero lower dimensional obstacles. The study in the latter case is based on a generalization of Almgren's frequency formula, first established by Caffarelli, Salsa, and Silvestre.
We establish Weiss' and Monneau's type quasi-monotonicity formulas for quadratic energies having matrix of coefficients in a Sobolev space $W^{1,p}$, $p>n$, and provide an application to the corresponding free boundary analysis for the related classical obstacle problems.
We prove quasi-monotonicity formulas for classical obstacle-type problems with energies being the sum of a quadratic form with Lipschitz coefficients, and a Hölder continuous linear term. With the help of those formulas we are able to carry out the full analysis of the regularity of free-boundary points following the approaches by Caffarelli, Weiss and Monneau.
We consider singular solutions to quasilinear elliptic equations under zero Dirichlet boundary condition. Under suitable assumptions on the nonlinearity we deduce symmetry and monotonicity properties of positive solutions via an improved moving plane procedure.
We consider positive singular solutions of PDEs arising from double phase functionals. Exploiting a rather new version of the moving plane method originally developed by Sciunzi, we prove symmetry and monotonicity properties of such solutions.
This paper completes and partially improves some of the results of [arXiv:0809.5002] about the asymptotic behavior of solutions of linear and nonlinear elliptic equations with singular coefficients via an Almgren type monotonicity formula
We consider possibly degenerate and singular elliptic equations in a possibly anisotropic medium. We obtain monotonicity results for the energy density, rigidity results for the solutions and classification results for the singularity/degeneracy/anisotropy allowed. As far as we know, these results are new even in the case of non-singular and non-degenerate anisotropic equations.
Viscosity solution of systems of integral-partial differential equations with interconnected obstacles without Monotonicity Conditions and infinite L{é}vy measure
Le Mans Université（勒芒大学）；University of Tunis El Manar（突尼斯艾曼大学）
We investigate qualitative properties of positive singular solutions of some elliptic systems in bounded and unbounded domains. We deduce symmetry and monotonicity properties via the moving plane procedure. Moreover, in the unbounded case, we study some cooperative elliptic systems involving critical nonlinearities in $\mathbb{R}^n$.
We study a nonlinear, nonlocal eigenvalue problem driven by the fractional p-Laplacian with an indefinite, singular weight chosen in an optimal class. We prove the existence of an unbounded sequence of positive variational eigenvalues and alternative characterizations of the first and second eigenvalues. Then, by means of such characterizations, we prove strict decreasing monotonicity of such eigenvalues with respect to the weight function.
We construct viscosity solutions to the nonlinear evolution equation \eqref{p} below which generalizes the motion of level sets by mean curvature (the latter corresponds to the case $p = 1$) using the regularization scheme as in \cite{ES1} and \cite{SZ}. The pointwise properties of such solutions, namely the comparison principles, convergence of solutions as $p\to 1$, large-time behavior and unweighted energy monotonicity are studied. We also prove a notable monotonicity formula for the weighted energy, thus generalizing Struwe's famous monotonicity formula for the heat equation ($p =2$).
We prove quasi-monotonicity formulae for classical obstacle-type problems with quadratic energies with coefficients in fractional Sobolev spaces, and a linear term with a Dini-type continuity property. These formulae are used to obtain the regularity of free-boundary points following the approaches by Caffarelli, Monneau and Weiss.
We consider positive singular solutions (i.e. with a non-removable singularity) of a system of PDEs driven by $p$-Laplacian operators and with the additional presence of a nonlinear first order term. By a careful use of a rather new version of the moving plane method, we prove the symmetry of the solutions. The result is already new in the scalar case.
This note is devoted to continuity results of the time derivative of the solution to the one-dimensional parabolic obstacle problem with variable coefficients. It applies to the smooth fit principle in numerical analysis and in financial mathematics. It relies on various tools for the study of free boundary problems: blow-up method, monotonicity formulae, Liouville's results.
We consider the inverse problems of for the fractional Schrödinger equation by using monotonicity formulas. We provide if-and-only-if monotonicity relations between positive bounded potentials and their associated nonlocal Dirichlet-to-Neumann maps. Based on the monotonicity relation, we can prove uniqueness for the nonlocal Calderón problem in a constructive manner. Secondly, we offer a reconstruction method for an unknown obstacles in a given domain. Our method is independent of the dimension $n\geq 2$ and only requires the background solution of the fractional Schrödinger equation.
We study the singular part of the free boundary in the obstacle problem for the fractional Laplacian, \ $\min\bigl\{(-Δ)^su,\,u-φ\bigr\}=0$ in $\mathbb R^n$, for general obstacles $φ$. Our main result establishes the complete structure and regularity of the singular set. To prove it, we construct new monotonicity formulas of Monneau-type that extend those in \cite{GP} to all $s\in(0,1)$.
In this paper we give a comprehensive treatment of a two-penalty boundary obstacle problem for a divergence form elliptic operator, motivated by applications to fluid dynamics and thermics. Specifically, we prove existence, uniqueness and optimal regularity of solutions, and establish structural properties of the free boundary. The proofs are based on tailor-made monotonicity formulas of Almgren, Weiss, and Monneau-type, combined with the classical theory of oblique derivative problems.
In this paper we establish the exact growth of the solution of the singular quasilinear p-parabolic obstacle problem near the free boundary from which we deduce its porosity.
This paper is concerned with the self-improving property for obstacle problem related to the singular porous medium equation. We establish a local higher integrability result for the spatial gradient of the $m$-th power of nonnegative weak solutions, under some suitable regularity assumptions on the obstacle function.
In this work, we consider the singular set in the thin obstacle problem with weight $|x_{n+1}|^a$ for $a\in (-1, 1)$, which arises as the local extension of the obstacle problem for the fractional Laplacian (a non-local problem). We develop a refined expansion of the solution around its singular points by building on the ideas introduced by Figalli and Serra to study the fine properties of the singular set in the classical obstacle problem. As a result, under a superharmonicity condition on the obstacle, we prove that each stratum of the singular set is locally contained in a single $C^2$ mani…
In this note, we prove the uniqueness of blowups at singular points of the no-sign obstacle problem $Δu=χ_{_{B_1\backslash \{u=|Du|=0\}}}\ \text{in}\ B_1,$ thus give a positive answer to a problem raised in \cite[Notes of Chaper 7, page 149]{PSU12}.
We consider Anzellotti-type almost minimizers for the thin obstacle (or Signorini) problem with zero thin obstacle and establish their $C^{1,β}$ regularity on the either side of the thin manifold, the optimal growth away from the free boundary, the $C^{1,γ}$ regularity of the regular part of the free boundary, as well as a structural theorem for the singular set. The analysis of the free boundary is based on a successful adaptation of energy methods such as a one-parameter family of Weiss-type monotonicity formulas, Almgren-type frequency formula, and the epiperimetric and logarithmic epiperim…
We revisit and sharpen the results from our previous work, where we investigated the regularity of the singular set of the free boundary in the nonlinear obstacle problem. As in the work of Figalli-Serra on the classical obstacle problem, we show that each stratum can be further decomposed into a `good' part and an `anomalous' part, where the former is covered by $C^{1,1-}$ manifolds, and the latter is of lower dimension.
We study the singular set in the thin obstacle problem for degenerate parabolic equations with weight $|y|^a$ for $a \in (-1,1)$. Such problem arises as the local extension of the obstacle problem for the fractional heat operator $(\partial_t - Δ_x)^s$ for $s \in (0,1)$. Our main result establishes the complete structure and regularity of the singular set of the free boundary. To achieve it, we prove Almgren-Poon, Weiss, and Monneau type monotonicity formulas which generalize those for the case of the heat equation ($a=0$).
In this paper we will investigate the singular points of the following unstable free boundary problem: {equation}\label{Eq} Δu= -χ_{\{u>0\}} \quad\quad\textrm{in} B_1(0) {equation} where $χ_{\{u>0\}}$ is the characteristic function of the set $\{u>0\}$.
We establish the $C^{1+γ}$-Hölder regularity of the regular free boundary in the stationary obstacle problem defined by the fractional Laplace operator with drift in the subcritical regime. Our method of the proof consists in proving a new monotonicity formula and an epiperimetric inequality. Both tools generalizes the original ideas of G. Weiss for the classical obstacle problem to the framework of fractional powers of the Laplace operator with drift. Our study continues the earlier research, where two of us established the optimal interior regularity of solutions.
We study almost minimizers for the thin obstacle problem with variable Hölder continuous coefficients and zero thin obstacle and establish their $C^{1,β}$ regularity on the either side of the thin space. Under an additional assumption of quasisymmetry, we establish the optimal growth of almost minimizers as well as the regularity of the regular set and a structural theorem on the singular set. The proofs are based on the generalization of Weiss- and Almgren-type monotonicity formulas for almost minimizers established earlier in the case of constant coefficients.
In this work we consider an inhomogeneous two-phase obstacle-type problem driven by the fractional Laplacian. In particular, making use of the Caffarelli-Silvestre extension, Almgren and Monneau type monotonicity formulas and blow-up analysis, we provide a classification of the possible vanishing orders, which implies the strong unique continuation property. Moreover, we prove a stratification result for the nodal set, together with estimates on its Hausdorff dimensions, for both the regular and the singular part. The main tools come from geometric measure theory and amount to Whitney's Extens…
We deal with a global Calderón-Zygmund type estimate for elliptic obstacle problems of $p$-Laplacian type with measure data. For this paper, we focus on the singular case of growth exponent, i.e. $1<p \le 2-\frac{1}{n}$. In addition, the emphasis of this paper is in obtaining the Lorentz bounds for the gradient of solutions with the use of fractional maximal operators.
For the obstacle problem involving a convex fully nonlinear elliptic operator, we show that the singular set in the free boundary stratifies. The top stratum is locally covered by a $C^{1,α}$-manifold, and the lower strata are covered by $C^{1,\log^\varepsilon}$-manifolds. This essentially recovers the regularity result obtained by Figalli-Serra when the operator is the Laplacian.
We prove existence, uniqueness and optimal regularity of solutions to the stationary obstacle problem defined by the fractional Laplacian operator with drift, in the subcritical regime. We localize our problem by considering a suitable extension operator introduced by L. Caffarelli and L. Silvestre. The structure of the extension equation is different from the one considered by L. Caffarelli, S. Salsa and L. Silvestre in their study of the obstacle problem for the fractional Laplacian without drift, in that the obstacle function has less regularity, and exhibits some singularities. To take int…
A free boundary problem arising from materials science is studied in one-dimensional case. The problem studied here is an obstacle problem for the non-convex energy consisting of a bending energy, tension and an adhesion energy. If the bending energy, which is a higher order term, is deleted then "edge" singularities of the solutions (surfaces) may occur at the free boundary as Alt-Caffarelli type variational problems. The main result of this paper is to give a singular limit of the energy utilizing the notion of $Γ$-convergence, when the bending energy can be regarded as a perturbation. This …
We study the incompressible limit of the porous medium equation with a right hand side representing either a source or a sink term, and an injection boundary condition. This model can be seen as a simplified description of non-monotone motions in tumor growth and crowd motion, generalizing the congestion-only motions studied in recent literature (\cite{AKY}, \cite{PQV}, \cite{KP}, \cite{MPQ}). We characterize the limit density, which solves a free boundary problem of Hele-Shaw type in terms of the limit pressure. The novel feature of our result lies in the characterization of the limit pressur…
The monotonicity-based approach has become one of the fundamental methods for reconstructing inclusions in the inverse problem of electrical impedance tomography. Thus far the method has not been proven to be able to handle extreme inclusions that correspond to some parts of the studied domain becoming either perfectly conducting or perfectly insulating. The main obstacle has arguably been establishing suitable monotonicity principles for the corresponding Neumann-to-Dirichlet boundary maps. In this work, we tackle this shortcoming by first giving a convergence result in the operator norm for …
For the general obstacle problem, we prove by direct methods an epiperimetric inequality at regular and singular points, thus answering a question of Weiss (Invent. Math., 138 (1999), 23--50). In particular at singular points we introduce a new tool, which we call logarithmic epiperimetric inequality, which yields an explicit logarithmic modulus of continuity on the $C^1$ regularity of the singular set, thus improving previous results of Caffarelli and Monneau.
Recent work by Serfaty and Serra give a formula for the velocity of the free boundary of the obstacle problem at regular points [Serfaty-Serra 2018], and much older work by King, Lacey, and Vazquez gives an example of a singular free boundary point (in the Hele-Shaw flow) that remains stationary for a positive amount of time [King-Lacey-Vazquez 1995]. The authors show how singular free boundaries in the obstacle problem in some settings move immediately in response to varying data. Three applications of this result are given, and in particular, the authors show a uniqueness result: For suffici…
We study the parabolic obstacle problem $$\lap u-u_t=fχ_{\{u>0\}}, \quad u\geq 0,\quad f\in L^p \quad \mbox{with}\quad f(0)=1$$ and obtain two monotonicity formulae, one that applies for general free boundary points and one for singular free boundary points. These are used to prove a second order Taylor expansion at singular points (under a pointwise Dini condition), with an estimate of the error (under a pointwise double Dini condition). Moreover, under the assumption that $f$ is Dini continuous, we prove that the set of regular points is locally a (parabolic) $C^1$-surface and that the set o…
In this paper, we prove the regularity of the free boundary in the Monge-Ampère obstacle problem $\det D^2 v= f(y)χ_{\{v>0\}}. $ By duality, the regularity of the free boundary is equivalent to that of the asymptotic cone of the solution to the singular Monge-Ampère equation $\det D^2 u = 1/f (Du)+δ_0$ at the origin. We first establish an asymptotic estimate for the solution $u$ near the singular point, then use a partial Legendre transform to change the Monge-Ampère equation to a singular, fully nonlinear elliptic equation, and establish the regularity of solutions to the singular elliptic eq…
We prove the optimal $W^{2, \infty }$ regularity for fully nonlinear elliptic equations with convex gradient constraints. We do not assume any regularity about the constraints; so the constraints need not be $C^1$ or strictly convex. We also show that the optimal regularity holds up to the boundary. Our approach is to show that these elliptic equations with gradient constraints are related to some fully nonlinear double obstacle problems. Then we prove the optimal $W^{2, \infty }$ regularity for the double obstacle problems. In this process, we also employ the monotonicity property for the sec…
We consider positive singular solutions to semilinear elliptic problems with possibly singular nonlinearity. We deduce symmetry and monotonicity properties of the solutions via the moving plane procedure.
