An inverse free boundary problem

Abstract

We study inverse problems for the elliptic and parabolic obstacle problems from boundary measurements. For the classical elliptic obstacle problem with strictly superharmonic obstacle function, we show that the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map admits a one-sided linearization at every boundary datum lying strictly above the obstacle. The linearized map is the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map for a rough Dirichlet problem on the a priori unknown non-contact set. We show that these linearized Cauchy data uniquely determine the non-contact set up to set of Sobolev $2$-capacity zero and consequently determine the obstacle. Our result applies to the inverse problem for a parabolic obstacle problem where both the coefficient and the obstacle function are time-independent by reducing to the elliptic inverse problem.