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For the obstacle problem with a nonlinear operator, we characterize the space of global solutions with compact contact sets. This is achieved by constructing a bijection onto a class of quadratic polynomials describing the asymptotic behavior of solutions., Comment: 10 pages

We study global solutions to the thin obstacle problem with at most quadratic growth at infinity. We show that every ellipsoid can be realized as the contact set of such a solution. On the other hand, if such a solution has a compact contact set, we show that it must be an ellipsoid., Comment: A uniqueness result is added to Theorem 1.1, thanks to the suggestion of one referee. Funding information is added

The characterization of global solutions to the obstacle problems in $\mathbb{R}^N$, or equivalently of null quadrature domains, has been studied over more than 90 years. In this paper we give a conclusive answer to this problem by proving the following long-standing conjecture: The coincidence set of a global solution to the obstacle problem is either a half-space, an ellipsoid, a paraboloid, or a cylinder with an ellipsoid or a paraboloid as base.

We prove the -- to the best knowledge of the authors -- first result on the fine asymptotic behavior of the regular part of the free boundary of the obstacle problem close to singularities. The result is motivated by our recent partial answer to a long standing conjecture and the first partial classification of global solutions of the obstacle problem with unbounded coincidence sets in higher dimensions., Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2005.04915

In this paper we give a full classification of global solutions of the obstacle problem for the fractional Laplacian (including the thin obstacle problem) with compact coincidence set and at most polynomial growth in dimension $N \geq 3$. We do this in terms of a bijection onto a set of polynomials describing the asymptotics of the solution. Furthermore we prove that coincidence sets of global solutions that are compact are also convex if the solution has at most quadratic growth.

Motivated by the almost completely open problem of characterizing unbounded coincidence sets of global solutions of the classical obstacle problem in higher dimensions, we give in this note a concise and easy-to-extend proof of the known fact that if the coincidence set $\{u=0 \}$ of a global solution $u$ is bounded with nonempty interior then it is an ellipsoid.

Assuming a lower bound on the dimension, we prove a long standing conjecture concerning the classification of global solutions of the obstacle problem with unbounded coincidence sets.

In this paper we derive quantitative conditions under which a compactly supported drift term blocks the propagation of a traveling wave in a straight cylinder in dimension $n \geq 3$ under the condition that the drift has a potential., Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1803.03102

In this paper we derive quantitative conditions under which a compactly supported drift term depending on the direction of propagation blocks a traveling wave solution or lets it pass almost unchanged. We give explicit conditions on the drift term for blocking as well as almost unchanged propagation in one spacial dimension.

In this paper we consider a semilinear parabolic equation in an infinite cylinder. The spatially varying nonlinearity is such that it connects two (spatially independent) bistable nonlinearities in a compact set in space. We prove that, given such a setting, a traveling wave obeying the equation with the one bistable nonlinearity and starting at the respective side of the cylinder, will converge to a traveling wave solution prescribed by the nonlinearity on the other side.

We consider a Fokker-Planck equation which is coupled to an externally given time-dependent constraint on its first moment. This constraint introduces a Lagrange-multiplier which renders the equation nonlocal and nonlinear. In this paper we exploit an interpretation of this equation as a Wasserstein gradient flow of a free energy ${\mathcal{F}}$ on a time-constrained manifold. First, we prove existence of solutions by passing to the limit in an explicit Euler scheme obtained by minimizing $h {\mathcal{F}}(\varrho)+W_2^2(\varrho^0,\varrho)$ among all $\varrho$ satisfying the constraint for some $\varrho^0$ and time-step $h>0$. Second, we provide quantitative estimates for the rate of convergence to equilibrium when the constraint converges to a constant. The proof is based on the investigation of a suitable relative entropy with respect to minimizers of the free energy chosen according to the constraint. The rate of convergence can be explicitly expressed in terms of constants in suitable logarithmic Sobolev inequalities.