On stability conditions for stationary solutions of boundary-value problems with free boundary (Q2488369)

From author's introduction: Let \(\Omega\) be a bounded domain in \(\mathbb R^n\) with a sufficiently smooth boundary \(\partial\Omega =S_1\). It is required to find a smooth manifold \(S_0 \subset \Omega\) for which in the domain \(\Omega (S_1,S_0)\) bounded by \(S_1\) and \(S_0\), there exists a solution \(u_0\) of the problem \[ \nabla^2_x u_0=0 \quad \text{in }\Omega (S_1,S_0); \] \[ u_0=1 \quad\text{on }S_1; \qquad u_0=0 \quad\text{on } S_0; \] \[ | \nabla_x u_0 | =\lambda \quad\text{on }S_0; \qquad \lambda= \text{const}>0. \] The purpose of this paper is to prove the stability of a spherically symmetric solution. We prove that in a domain \(\Omega \subset \mathbb R^n\) whose boundary is a ``small'' deformation of the sphere \(S_1\), there exists a locally unique solution continuously depending on the deformation.