Regularity of the Optimal Sets for a Class of Integral Shape Functionals

Abstract We prove the first regularity theorem for the free boundary of solutions to shape optimization problems involving integral functionals, for which the energy of a domain Ω is obtained as the integral of a cost function j (u, x) depending on the solution u of a certain PDE problem on Ω. The main feature of these functionals is that the minimality of a domain Ω cannot be translated into a variational problem for a single (real or vector valued) state function. In this paper we focus on the case of affine cost functions j (u, x) =-g (x) u+Q (x) j (u, x) = - g (x) u + Q (x), where u is the solution of the PDE - u=f - Δ u = f with Dirichlet boundary conditions. We obtain the Lipschitz continuity and the non-degeneracy of the optimal u from the inwards/outwards optimality of Ω and then we use the stability of Ω with respect to variations with smooth vector fields in order to study the blow-up limits of the state function u. By performing a triple consecutive blow-up, we prove the existence of blow-up sequences converging to homogeneous stable solution of the one-phase Bernoulli problem and according to the blow-up limits, we decompose ∂ Ω into a singular and a regular part. In order to estimate the Hausdorff dimension of the singular set of ∂ Ω we give a new formulation of the notion of stability for the one-phase problem, which is preserved under blow-up limits and allows to develop a dimension reduction principle. Finally, by combining a higher order Boundary Harnack principle and a viscosity approach, we prove C^ C ∞ regularity of the regular part of the free boundary when the data are smooth.