A geometric approach to regularity for nonlinear free boundary problems with finite Morse index

Abstract

Let $u$ be a weak solution of the free boundary problem $$\mathcal L u=\lambda_0 \mathcal H^1\lfloor\partial\{u>0\}, u\ge 0,$$ where $\mathcal L u={\text{div}}(g(\nabla u)\nabla u)$ is a quasilinear elliptic operator and $g(\xi)$ is a given function of $\xi$ satisfying some structural conditions. We prove that the free boundary $\partial\{ u>0\}$ is continuously differentiable in $\mathbb R^2$, provided that $\partial\{ u>0\}$ has locally finite connectivity. Moreover, we show that the free boundaries of weak solutions with finite $\it{Morse \ index}$ must have finite connectivity. The weak solutions are locally Lipschitz continuous and non-degenerate stationary points of the Alt-Caffarelli type functional $J[u]=\int_{\Omega}F(\nabla u)+Q^2\chi_{\{ u>0\}}$. The full regularity of the free boundary is not fully understood even for the {\it minimizers} of $J[u]$ in the simplest case $g(\xi)=|\xi|^{p-2}, p>1$, partly because the methods from the classical case $p=2$ cannot be generalized to the full range of $p$. Our method, however, is very geometric and works even for the $ stationary\ points$ of the functional $J[u]$ for a large class of nonlinearities $F$.