The thin obstacle problem for some variable coefficient degenerate elliptic operators (Q2157308)

In this paper under review, the authors study the thin obstacle problem for a class of variable coefficient degenerate elliptic operators: \[ \begin{cases} \nabla\cdot (y^a A(x) \nabla_X U)=0, &\text{ in } \mathbb{B}_1^+,\\ \min(U(x,0)-\psi(x), -\lim_{y\rightarrow 0+}y^a\partial_yU(x,y)\}=0, &\text{ on } B_1, \end{cases} \] where \(\mathbb{B}_1^+:=\{X=(x,y)\in \mathbb{R}^n\times \mathbb{R}: |X|<1, y>0\}\), \(B_1:=\{x\in \mathbb{R}^n: |x|<1\}\), \(\psi:B_1\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) is a given obstacle and \(A(x)=(a_{ij}(x))\) is symmetric and uniformly elliptic, which is of the form \begin{align*} (a_{ij}(x))=\sum_{i,j=1}^nb_{ij}(x) e_i\otimes e_j+ e_{n+1}\otimes e_{n+1}. \end{align*} The authors prove that if \(a\in [0,1)\), \(\psi\in C^{1,1}\) and \(b_{ij}\) is Lipschitz, then solutions have the optimal interior regularity: \(\nabla_xU\in C^{\frac{1-a}{2}}(\overline{\mathbb{B}_{1/2}^+})\), \(y^a\partial_yU\in C^{\frac{1+a}{2}}(\overline{\mathbb{B}_{1/2}^+})\). Moreover, let \(\Gamma_{\psi}:=\partial\{x\in B_1: U(x,0)=\psi(x)\}\) denote the free boundary and let \(\Gamma_{\psi}^{\frac{3-a}{2}}\) denote the regular free boundary, which consists of those free boundary points at which \(U-\psi\) has vanishing order equal to \(\frac{3-a}{2}\). The authors show that \(\Gamma_{\psi}^{\frac{3-a}{2}}\) is a relative open subset of the \(\Gamma_{\psi}\) and it is locally a \(C^{1,\gamma}\) graph. To prove the results, the authors first prove (sub-optimal) Hölder regularity of the gradients using the method of Campanato. Then they show the optimal regularity by establishing an Almgren's type monotonicity formula. The study of the regular free boundary relies on a Weiss type monotonicity formula as well as the known epiperimetric inequality for the Weiss energy.