Interface regularity for semilinear one-phase problems

Abstract

We study critical points of a one-parameter family of functionals arising in combustion models. The problems we consider converge, for infinitesimal values of the parameter, to Bernoulli's free boundary problem, also known as one-phase problem. We prove a $C^{1,\alpha }$ estimates for the "interfaces" (level sets separating the burnt and unburnt regions). As a byproduct, we obtain the one-dimensional symmetry of minimizers in the whole ${\mathbb{R}}^N$, for $N\le 4$, answering positively a conjecture of Fernández-Real and Ros-Oton. Our results are to Bernoulli's free boundary problem what Savin's results for the Allen-Cahn equation are to minimal surfaces.

39 pages