``Bubbling'' of the prescribed curvature flow on the torus (Q2216735): Difference between revisions

A classical result of [\textit{J. L. Kazdan} and \textit{F. W. Warner}, J. Differ. Geom. 10, 113--134 (1975; Zbl 0296.53037)] characterizes those smooth functions \(f\) on a closed surface \((M,g_b)\) of genus zero for which there exists a conformal metric \(g=e^{2u}g_b\) on \(M\) with Gauss curvature \(K_g=f.\) In particular, for sign-changing functions \(f\) with negative mean on \(M,\) the metric \(g\) can be obtained from a minimizer \(u\) of the Dirichlet integral \[ E(u)=\dfrac{1}{2}\int_M |\nabla u|^2_{g_b}d\mu_{g_b} \] in the class of functions \[ \left\{ u\in H^1(M,g_b)\colon\ \int_M f e^{2u}d\mu_{g_b}=0\right\}. \] In a certain limit regime, the minimizers \(u\) exhibit ``bubbling'' as shown in [\textit{L. Galimberti}, Calc. Var. Partial Differential Equations 54, 2483--2501 (2015; Zbl 1334.53027)]. In the interesting paper under review, the author sharpens the result of Galimberti by proving that all resulting ``bubbles'' are spherical. Moreover, it is shown that analogous ``bubbling'' appears also in the prescribed curvature flow.