Improvement of flatness for nonlocal free boundary problems

Abstract

In this article, we study for the first time the regularity of the free boundary in the one-phase free boundary problem driven by a general nonlocal operator. Our main results establish that the free boundary is $C^{1,\alpha }$ near regular points, and that the set of regular free boundary points is open and dense. Moreover, in 2D we classify all blow-up limits and prove that the free boundary is $C^{1,\alpha }$ everywhere. The main technical tool of our proof is an improvement of flatness scheme, which we establish in the general framework of viscosity solutions, and which is of independent interest. All of these results were only known for the fractional Laplacian, and are completely new for general nonlocal operators. In contrast to previous works on the fractional Laplacian, our method of proof is purely nonlocal in nature.