Structure of One-Phase Free Boundaries in the Plane

Abstract

We study classical solutions to the one-phase free boundary problem in which the free boundary consists of smooth curves and the components of the positive phase are simply connected. We characterize the way in which the curvature of the free boundary can tend to infinity. Indeed, if curvature tends to infinity, then two components of the free boundary are close, and the solution locally resembles an entire solution discovered by Hauswirth, Hélein, and Pacard, whose free boundary has the shape of a double hairpin. Our results are analogous to theorems of Colding and Minicozzi characterizing embedded minimal annuli, and a direct connection between our theorems and theirs can be made using a correspondence due to Traizet.