A free boundary problem driven by the biharmonic operator (Q2020188)

For smooth and bounded domains \(\Omega \in \mathbb R^n\), the authors study the minimization of the functional \[ J[u]:=\int_\Omega \Big(|\Delta u|^2+ \chi_{\{u>0\}}\Big) \] in the admissible class of functions \[ \mathcal A:= \left\{u\in W^{2, 2}(\Omega) \mid u-u_0\in W^{1,2}_0(\Omega) \right\}, \] where \(u_0\in W^{2,2}(\Omega)\) is a given function (defining the Navier type boundary condition). In special, it is concluded that \(u\) is quadratically nondegenerate at the singular free boundary points and that at the free boundary points \(x\in \Omega\), where \(\nabla u(x)=0\), the free boundary is either well approximated by zero sets of quadratic polynomials or \(u\) has quadratic growth. In the particular case of \(n=2\), much more detailed results are achieved.