The analyticity of solutions of the Stefan problem

The Stefan problem of a semi-infinite body with arbitrarily prescribed initial and boundary conditions is studied. One of the objectives of the paper is to investigate the analyticity of the solutions. For this purpose, the prescribed initial and boundary conditions are considered to be series of fractional powers of their arguments. It is found that the exact solutions of the problem for various forms of the initial and boundary conditions can be established in series of parabolic cylinder functions and time t. Existence and convergence of the series solutions are studied and proved. The present solutions include the known exact solutions as special cases. On the basis of the present solutions, the question of the analyticity of solutions of the Stefan problem, raised by Rubinstein in his book, can be answered. Conditions for analyticity of the solutions with various initial and boundary conditions are fully discussed.