Rigidity versus symmetry breaking via nonlinear flows on cylinders and Euclidean spaces (Q2520604)

In a variational problem it is of advantage for computing the optimal value of the functional if the optimizer is symmetric. However, variational problems that depend on parameters very often cannot be treated by general methods, because, depending on the parameters, the optimizers are symmetric and sometimes not. Thus, ad hoc techniques, tailored to the problems at hand, have to be developed to prove symmetry in the desired regions. One of such examples is given by the Caffarelli-Kohn-Nirenberg (CKN) inequalities [\textit{L. Caffarelli} et al., Compos. Math. 53, 259--275 (1984; Zbl 0563.46024)] that generalizes many well-known inequalities such as Gagliardo-Nirenberg inequalities, Sobolev inequalities, Hardy-Sobolev inequalities, Nash inequalities, etc. This paper is motivated by the characterization of the optimal symmetry breaking region in CKN inequalities. One says, in the language of physics, that the symmetry of a symmetric functional is \textit{broken} when the state of lowest energy does not have these symmetries. To show that symmetry is broken one can minimize the functional in the class of symmetric functions and then check whether the value of the functional can be lowered by perturbing the minimizer away from the symmetric situation. If one can lower the energy in this fashion then symmetry is broken. The main result of this paper is the computation of optimal functions and sharp constants in the symmetry region. The result solves a longstanding conjecture on the optimal symmetry range. As a byproduct of their method the authors obtain sharp estimates for the principal eigenvalue of Schrödinger operators on some non-flat non-compact manifolds. The method relies on generalized entropy functionals for nonlinear diffusion equations. However, key estimates depend as much on curvature properties as on purely nonlinear effects. The method is well adapted to functional inequalities involving simple weights and also applies to general cylinders. Beyond results on symmetry and symmetry breaking, and on optimal constants in functional inequalities, rigidity theorems for nonlinear elliptic equations can be deduced in rather general settings.