Pointwise estimates for the heat equation. Application to the free boundary of the obstacle problem with Dini coefficients

Abstract

We study the pointwise regularity of solutions to parabolic equations. As a first result, we prove that if the modulus of mean oscillation of $\Delta u -u_t$ at the origin is Dini (in $L^p$ average), then the origin is a Lebesgue point of continuity (still in $L^p$ average) for $D^2 u$ and $\dd_t u$. We extend this pointwise regularity result to the parabolic obstacle problem with Dini right hand side. In particular, we prove that the solution to the obstacle problem has, at regular points of the free boundary, a Taylor expansion up to order two in space and one in time (in the $L^p$ average). Moreover, we get a quantitative estimate of the error in this Taylor expansion. Our method is based on decay estimates obtained by contradiction, using blow-up arguments and Liouville type theorems. As a by-product of our approach, we deduce that the regular points of the free boundary are locally contained in a $C^1$ hypersurface for the parabolic distance $\sqrt{x^2 +|t|}$.