How a minimal surface leaves a thin obstacle (Q2188115)

In this interesting paper under review, the authors study the thin obstacle problem for nonparametric minimal surfaces with flat obstacles. More precisely, let \(u\) be the minimizer of the area functional \[\int_{B_1}\sqrt{1+|\nabla v|^2} \ dx\] among the class of functions \[\mathcal{A}_g:=\{v\in g+ W^{1,\infty}_0(B_1): v(x', x_{n+1})=v(x',-x_{n+1}), \ v\big |_{B'_1}\geq 0\}\] for some sufficiently smooth function \(g\), where \(B_1\) is the unit ball in \(\mathbb R^{n+1}\) for \(n\geq 1\) and \(B'_1=B_1\cap \{x_{n+1}=0\}\) . The authors show that \(u\) has the optimal regularity \(C^{1,\frac{1}{2}}_{loc}(B_1^+\cup B'_1)\). Moreover, the free boundary \(\Gamma(u):=\partial \{(x',0)\in B'_1: u(x',0)=0\}\) has locally finite \((n-1)\)-Hausdorff measure and is \(\mathcal{H}^{n-1}\)-rectifiable, and the regular free boundary is locally a \(C^{1,\alpha}\) regular submanifold of dimension \(n-1\) for some \(\alpha\in (0,1)\). The proof for the optimal regularity relies on an interesting connection with two-valued minimal graphs: if \(u\) is a solution to the above thin obstacle problem, then the two-valued map \(U=\{u,-u\}\) is a minimal two-valued graph. Then the optimal reguarity of the solution to the thin obstacle problem follows from that for minimal two-valued graphs in [\textit{L. Simon} and \textit{N. Wickramasekera} Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 69, No. 7, 1213--1258 (2016; Zbl 1341.53097)]. The structure of the free boundary follows by an modification of the frequency function arguments in a previous paper of the authors on the Signorini problem for the fractional Laplacian [\textit{M. Focardi} and \textit{E. Spadaro}, Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 230, No. 1, 125--184 (2018; Zbl 1405.35257)].