On minimizers of an isoperimetric problem with long-range interactions under a convexity constraint (Q1747203)

The interesting paper under review deals with a variational problem modeling the behavior at equilibrium of charged liquid drops under a convexity constraint. More precisely, the authors study existence and regularity of minimizers of the problem \[ \min\big\{\mathcal F_{Q,\alpha}(E):\;E\subset \mathbb R^N\text{ is\;a\;convex\;body, }| E| =V\big\}. \] Here, given a set \(E\subset\mathbb R^N\) and numbers \(V\), \(Q>0\), \(\alpha\in [0,N)\), the functional \(\mathcal F_{Q,\alpha}(E)\) is defined as \[ \mathcal F_{Q,\alpha}(E):= P(E)+Q^2 \mathcal I_\alpha (E) \] with \(P(E):=\mathcal H^{N-1}(\partial E)\) standing for the perimeter of \(E\) and \[ \mathcal I_\alpha (E)= \begin{cases}\inf\limits_{\mu\in\mathcal P(E)} \int_{E\times E}\frac{d\mu(x)d\mu(y)}{| x-y|^\alpha} &\text{if }\alpha\in(0,N),\\ \inf\limits_{\mu\in\mathcal P(E)}\int_{E\times E} \log\left(\frac{1}{| x-y|}\right)d\mu(x)d\mu(y) &\text{if }\alpha=0, \end{cases} \] where \(\mathcal P(E)\) is the set of the probability measures supported on the closure of \(E\). The first result of the paper uses compactness properties of convex sets and asserts well-posedness of the model by proving existence of minimizer for each \(\alpha\in [0,N)\) and each \(Q>0\). After that, in the particular case of Coulombic interaction in dimension two, \(N=2\) and \(\alpha=0\), the authors show that the minimizers are of class \(C^{1,1}\). In particular, it follows by a previous result by the authors [Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 217, No. 1, 1--36 (2015; Zbl 1328.76031)] that in this case the only minimizers are balls if the charge \(Q\) is small enough.