Regularity of solutions to nonlinear thin and boundary obstacle problems (Q2131748)

In this interesting paper under review, the authors prove one-sided continuity of the gradient of solutions to quasi-linear variational inequalities with interior thin obstacles and boundary obstacles. More precisely, let \(u\in \mathcal{K}\) be a solution to the variational inequality \[ \int_{\Omega} \langle F(x,u,\nabla u), \nabla v-\nabla u\rangle + F_0(x,u,\nabla u) (v-u)\geq 0, \quad \forall v\in \mathcal{K}, \] where \[\mathcal{K}:=\{v\in W^{1,\infty}(\Omega): v\big|_{\Sigma} \geq \psi, \ v\big|_{\partial\Omega}=g\}\] in the interior thin obstacle problem and \[\mathcal{K}:=\{v\in W^{1,\infty}(\Omega): v\big|_{\partial\Omega} \geq \psi\}\] in the boundary obstacle problem. Here \(\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^{n+1}\) is a bounded open set with \(C^2\) boundary, \(\Sigma\) is a smooth hypersurface dividing \(\Omega\) into two connected components, \(F:\Omega\times \mathbb{R}\times \mathbb{R}^{n+1}\rightarrow \mathbb{R}^{n+1}\) and \(F_0:\Omega\times \mathbb{R}\times \mathbb{R}^{n+1}\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) are \(C^1\) functions, \(\psi:\Sigma\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) (\(\psi:\partial\Omega\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) in the boundary obstacle case) is a given \(C^2\) obstacle and \(g:\partial\Omega\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) is a given Lipschitz boundary value. Under the natural ellipticity condition that \((\partial_kF_i)_{ik}\) is uniformly positive definite, the authors show that every Lipschitz solution to the interior thin obstacle problem has one-sided continuous derivatives up to \(\Sigma\), and every Lipschitz solution to the boundary obstacle problem is \(C^{1,\alpha}(\overline{\Omega})\) for some \(\alpha\in (0,1)\). Such results improve the known continuity results for tangential derivatives by Frehse. To show the continuity of derivatives the authors prove that the blow-up solutions to the variational inequalities are flat, one-dimensional and unique. The proof relies on the comparison principle and the known results on the continuity of tangential derivatives. To prove the \(C^{1,\alpha}\) regularity the authors extend the approach via De Giorgi's classes introduced by Uraltseva.