A transmission problem arising from the two-phase Stefan problem

Abstract

We study a parabolic transmission problem whose interface condition depends on the time derivative of the solution. This model arises naturally as the linearized limiting profile of a two-phase inhomogeneous Stefan problem after the hodograph transform. Our main result shows the existence and uniqueness of a classical solution. We also prove a Harnack inequality for a general class of transmission problems and establish $C^{1,\alpha }$ estimates up to the interface from both sides. These results can be used to obtain $C^{1,\alpha }$ regularity of flat free boundaries for the two-phase Stefan problem with distributed sources.