On the Bernoulli free boundary problems for the half Laplacian and for the spectral half Laplacian (Q2145636)

In this paper, the authors consider the exterior and interior Bernoulli free boundary problems for the half Laplacian, along with the interior problem for the spectral half Laplacian. More precisely, the exterior Bernoulli problem for the half Laplacian is described as follows. Let \(K\subset\mathbb{R}^d\) be open, nonempty and bounded. Given \(\lambda>0\), the problem consists of finding \(u\in C(\mathbb{R}^d)\) such that \(\overline{K}\subset\{u>0\}\), \(\{u>0\}\) is bounded and \(C^1\), and \[ \begin{cases} (-\Delta)^{1/2}u=0 \text{ in } \{u>0\}\setminus\overline{K},\\ u=1 \text{ in } \overline{K},\\ u=0 \text{ in } \mathbb{R}^d\setminus\{u>0\},\\ \lim\limits_{t\rightarrow 0+}\frac{u(\theta+t\nu(\theta))}{\sqrt{t}}=\lambda, \ \forall \theta\in\partial\{u>0\}, \end{cases} \] where \(\nu(\theta)\) is the interior normal of \(\{u>0\}\) at \(\theta\). To describe the next problem, let \(D\subset\mathbb{R}^d\) be an open, nonempty, bounded set. Given \(\lambda>0\), the interior Bernoulli problem for the half Laplacian consists of finding \(u\in C(\mathbb{R}^d)\) such that \(0\le u\le 1\), the set \(\{u=1\}\) is nonempty, contained in \(D\), of class \(C^1\), and \[ \begin{cases} (-\Delta)^{1/2}u=0 \text{ in } D\setminus\{u=1\},\\ u=0 \text{ in } \mathbb{R}^d\setminus D,\\ \lim\limits_{t\rightarrow 0+}\frac{u(\theta)-u(\theta+t\nu(\theta))}{\sqrt{t}}=\lambda \ \forall \theta\in\partial\{u=1\}, \end{cases} \] where \(\nu(\theta)\) is the exterior normal of \(\{u=1\}\) at \(\theta\). Finally, the interior Bernoulli problem for the spectral half Laplacian is described as follows. Given an open, nonempty, bounded set \(D\subset\mathbb{R}^d\) and \(\lambda>0\), find \(u\in C(\overline{D})\) with \(0\le u\le 1\) such that \(\{u=1\}\) is nonempty, contained in \(D\), of class \(C^1\), and \[ \begin{cases} (-\Delta_D)^{1/2}u=0 \text{ in } D\setminus \{u=1\},\\ u=0 \text{ on } \partial D,\\ \lim\limits_{t\rightarrow 0+}\frac{u(\theta)-u(\theta+t\nu(\theta))}{\sqrt{t}}=\lambda, \ \forall \theta\in\partial\{u=1\}, \end{cases} \] where \(\nu(\theta)\) is the exterior normal of \(\{u=1\}\) at \(\theta\). The first main result of the paper states that under starshapedness assumptions on the data, the free domain is starshaped for the half Laplacian. Furthermore, under convexity assumptions on the data, the free domain is convex for the interior problem for the spectral half-Laplacian. A Brunn-Minkowski inequality is proved for the Bernoulli constant. In terms of key ingredients in the proofs, in the case of the half Laplacian, the authors use a variational method, together with regularity results for viscosity solutions. In the case of the spectral half Laplacian, the authors rely on the Beurling method, which is based on subsolutions.