Regularity for the fully nonlinear dead-core problem (Q261424)

In this interesting paper, the author establishes new geometric regularity estimates for reaction-diffusion equations with strong absorption terms. The model considered is given by a fully nonlinear elliptic equation with measurable coefficients and a \(\mu\)-Hölder continuous convection term. More precisely, \[ F(X,D^2u)=(u^+)^{\mu}, \;0\leq \mu <1, \] where \(F:B_1 \times \operatorname{Sym}(n)\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) is a fully nonlinear elliptic operator with measurable coefficients, and solutions are understood in the viscosity sense. The lack of Lipschitz regularity of the right-hand side as a function of \(u\) allows for the existence of plateaus, i.e., nonnegative solutions may vanish identically within an a priori unknown region -- the so called dead core of the solution. The author proves that at any touching ground point \(Z\in \partial \{u>0\}\), solutions are \(\kappa(\mu)\)-differentiable for a sharp value \(\kappa(\mu)\geq 2\), with \(\kappa(1^-)=+\infty\). The proof of this result is based on a new flatness improvement method and it leads to a Liouville-type theorem for entire solutions to dead-core problems and to measure estimates on the touching ground boundary. In particular, it is proved that the non-coincidence set \(\{u>0\}\) has uniform positive density along its interior boundary \(\partial\{u>0\}\cap B_{1/2}\). It is also shown that the Hausdorff dimension of \(\partial\{u>0\}\) is less than \(n-\varepsilon_*\) for a universal \(\varepsilon_*\).