Higher regularity of the free boundary in the parabolic Signorini problem

Abstract

We show that the quotient of two caloric functions which vanish on a portion of an $$H^{k+ \alpha }$$ regular slit is $$H^{k+ \alpha }$$ at the slit, for $$k \ge 2$$ . In the case $$k=1$$ , we show that the quotient is in $$H^{1+\alpha }$$ if the slit is assumed to be space-time $$C^{1, \alpha }$$ regular. This can be thought of as a parabolic analogue of a recent important result in De Silva and Savin (Boundary Harnack estimates in slit domains and applications to thin free boundary problems, 2014), whose ideas inspired us. As an application, we show that the free boundary near a regular point of the parabolic thin obstacle problem studied in Danielli et al. (Optimal regularity and the free boundary in the parabolic Signorini problem. Mem. Am. Math. Soc., 2013) with zero obstacle is $$C^{\infty }$$ regular in space and time.