Nondegeneracy implies the existence of parametrized families of free boundaries (Q6144827)

In this paper, the author considers a specific class of free boundary problems, which he calls \textit{variational free boundary problems}. Those are free boundary problems whose solutions can be characterized as the critical point of a shape functional. More precisely, let \(\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^N\) be an open set with compact boundary of class \(C^3\), \(\Theta\) be a Banach space of \(\mathbb{R}^N\)-valued functions, \(U\) be a bounded open neighborhood of \(\partial\Omega\). Let \(m\in\mathbb{N}\), and \(\Lambda\) be a Banach space of parameters. Let also \[ \mathcal{O}=\{(Id+\theta)(\Omega) \ : \ \theta\in C^1_0(\overline{U},\mathbb{R}^N), ||\theta||_{C^1}<1\}. \] It is assumed that for all \(\omega\in\mathcal{O}\), there is an open neighborhood of \(0\in\Theta\), called \(\Theta'\), such that \(\omega_{\theta}=(Id+\theta)(\omega)\in\mathcal{O}\) for \(\theta \in \Theta'\), and that there is a parametrized shape functional \[ J:\mathcal{O}\times\Lambda\rightarrow\mathbb{R}^m \] such that or all \(\omega\in\mathcal{O}\), the function \(\mathcal{J}_{\omega}:\Theta'\times\Lambda\rightarrow\mathbb{R}^m\) given by \(\mathcal{J}_{\omega}(\theta,\Lambda)=J(\omega_{\theta},\lambda)\) is Frechet differentiable and satisfies other properties. The author defines what it means for \(\Omega\) to be a nondegenerate critical shape for \(J\) at \(\lambda=0\), providing a functional-analytical framework to construct families of solutions to variational free boundary problems when the shape functional is non-degenerate at a given solution. Finally, the author uses his framework to construct families of non-trivial solutions to the two-phase Serrin's overdetermined problem in the degenerate and non-degenerate cases.