On a class of thin obstacle-type problems for the bi-Laplacian operator
Analysis of PDEs
2026-02-19 v3
Abstract
This paper investigates the regularity of solutions and structural properties of the free boundary for a class of fourth-order elliptic problems with Neumann-type boundary conditions. The singular and degenerate elliptic operators studied naturally emerge from the extension procedure for higher-order fractional powers of the Laplacian, while the choice of non-linearity considered encompasses two-phase boundary obstacle problems as a special case. After establishing local regularity properties of solutions, Almgren- and Monneau-type monotonicity formulas are derived and utilized to carry out a blow-up analysis and prove a stratification result for the free boundary.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2509.11372,
title = {On a class of thin obstacle-type problems for the bi-Laplacian operator},
author = {Donatella Danielli and Giovanni Gravina},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.11372},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
Revised version; accepted for publication in Mathematische Annalen