Extinction rates for nonradial solutions to the Stefan problem

Abstract

We consider the one-phase Stefan problem describing the evolution of melting ice. On the one hand, we focus on understanding the evolution of the free boundary near isolated singular points, and we establish for the first time upper and (more surprisingly) lower estimates for its evolution. In 2D, these bounds almost match the best known ones for radial solutions, but hold for all solutions to the Stefan problem, with no extra assumption on the initial or boundary data. On the other hand, as a consequence of our results, we also characterize the global regularity of the free boundary, as follows: it can be written as a graph $t = \Gamma(x)$, where $\Gamma$ is $C^1$ (and not $C^2$) near any singular points in the lower strata $\Sigma_m$, $m \leq n - 2$. Moreover, $\Gamma$ is not $C^1$ at singular points in $\Sigma_{n-1}$.