The parabolic Dini-$\beta$ condition and absolute continuity of surface and caloric measure

Abstract

We show if $\partial \Omega$ is the graph of a parabolic Lipschitz function, then parabolic surface measure $\sigma$ of $\partial \Omega$ is absolutely continuous with respect to its caloric measure if and only if a (square) Dini-$\beta$ condition is satisfied. More specifically, the (square) Dini-$\beta$ condition is that \[\int_0^1 \hat{\beta}(X,t,r)^2 \frac{dr}{r} < \infty, \quad \text{$\sigma$-a.e. } (X,t) \in \partial \Omega.\] Here $\hat{\beta}$ is a parabolic version of the Jones ($L^2$) $\beta$-numbers. We show that these conditions are satisfied if and only if the graph is covered by a countable collection of {\it regular} Lipschitz graphs, that is, graphs with additional in-time regularity in the form of a half order time derivative in the parabolic BMO space. This supports the view that covering by {\it regular} Lipschitz graphs is the right notion for qualitative parabolic rectifiability in the context of parabolic PDEs. We also show that if \[\int_0^1 \hat{\beta}(X,t,r)^2 \frac{dr}{r} < \infty\] up to a set of caloric measure zero then the caloric measure is absolutely continuous with respect to surface measure.