The Parabolic Two-Phase Membrane Problem: Regularity in Higher Dimensions

Abstract

For the parabolic obstacle-problem-like equation $$\Delta u - \partial_t u = \lambda_+ \chi_{\{u>0\}} - \lambda_- \chi_{\{u<0\}} ,$$ where $\lambda_+$ and $\lambda_-$ are positive Lipschitz functions, we prove in arbitrary finite dimension that the free boundary $\partial\{u>0\} \cup\partial\{u<0\}$ is in a neighborhood of each ``branch point'' the union of two Lipschitz graphs that are continuously differentiable with respect to the space variables. The result extends the elliptic paper \cite{imrn} to the parabolic case. The result is optimal in the sense that the graphs are in general not better than Lipschitz, as shown by a counter-example.