Boundary pointwise regularity and applications to the regularity of free boundaries (Q6077928)

In this paper, a series of pointwise boundary regularity results for the Dirichlet problem and the oblique derivative problem are proved. More specifically, among other results, it has been shown that if \(u\) is a viscosity solution of either one of the following problems \[ \begin{cases} \Delta u=f & \text{in }\Omega\cap B_{1},\\ u=g & \text{on }\partial\Omega\cap B_{1}, \end{cases}\qquad\text{ or }\qquad\begin{cases} \Delta u=f & \text{in }\Omega\cap B_{1},\\ \boldsymbol{\beta}\cdot Du=g & \text{on }\partial\Omega\cap B_{1}, \end{cases} \] where \(f\) is \(C^{k-2,\alpha}\) at \(x=0\in\partial\Omega\) and \(g,\partial\Omega\cap B_{1}\) are \(C^{k,\alpha}\) at \(x=0\) for the Dirichlet problem, while \(g,\boldsymbol{\beta},\partial\Omega\cap B_{1}\) are \(C^{k-1,\alpha}\) at \(x=0\) for the oblique derivative problem, then \(u\) is \(C^{k,\alpha}\) at \(x=0\), meaning that there exists a polynomial \(P\) of degree at most \(k\) such that for every \(x\in\Omega\cap B_{1}\) we have \[ |u(x)-P(x)|\le C|x|^{k+\alpha}\big(\|u\|_{L^{\infty}}+\|f\|_{C^{k-2,\alpha}(0)}+\|g\|_{C^{j,\alpha}(0)}\big) \] for some constant \(C\) and \(j=k,k-1\) depending on the problem. Note that the vector-valued function \(\boldsymbol{\beta}\) satisfies the obliqueness condition: \(\boldsymbol{\beta}\cdot e_{n}\ge c>0\). The proofs utilize the observation that if the derivatives of \(u\) vanish, then \(u\) possesses higher regularity than usual. As applications, the higher regularity of free boundaries in obstacle-type problems and one phase problems are obtained, without using the partial hodograph-Legendre transform.