preprint

Inserted: 9 oct 2026

Year: 2026

Abstract:

We study the singular set of the free boundary for solutions of the thin Stefan problem in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}\times \mathbb{R}$, which models the melting of a thin sheet of ice over water. After a suitable transformation, we reduce to studying the parabolic Signorini (thin obstacle) problem with a time-monotonicity condition. First, we prove that the free boundary is locally the graph of a differentiable melting function $t=τ(x)$ defined on the $n$-dimensional thin space, and that the singular set coincides with the critical set of $τ$. Next, we show that the singular set has parabolic Hausdorff dimension at most $n$. We then establish generic regularity up to dimension $n+1=4$, proving that the free boundary is regular for almost every time. Finally, under smoothness assumptions on the obstacle, we show that the singular set is contained in a $C^\infty$-hypersurface outside a set of parabolic dimension at most $n-1$. Our analysis combines ideas developed for the classical Stefan problem with several new ingredients specific to the thin setting, including frequency formulas for second blow-ups, epiperimetric inequalities, higher order expansions, and a fine stratification of the singular set.