A quantitative Hopf-Oleinik lemma for degenerate fully nonlinear operators and applications to free boundary problems

Abstract

We prove a quantitative inhomogeneous Hopf-Oleinik lemma for viscosity solutions of $$|\nabla u|^αF(D^{2}u)=f $$ and, more generally, for viscosity supersolutions of $|\nabla u|^α\,{M}^-_{λ,Λ}(D^{2}u)\le f$. The result yields linear boundary growth with universal constants depending only on the structural data. We also exhibit a counterexample showing that the Hopf lemma fails for equations that act only in the large-gradient regime (in the sense of Imbert and Silvestre), thereby delineating the scope of our theorem. As applications, we obtain Lipschitz regularity for viscosity solutions of one-phase Bernoulli free boundary problems driven by these degenerate fully nonlinear operators and derive $\varepsilon$-uniform Lipschitz bounds for a one-phase flame propagation model.