Finite dimensional reduction for the positivity of some second shape derivatives (Q1884160)

Given an ``exterior domain'' \(\Omega\) (the complement of a regular planar compact set), the energy of \(\Omega\) is given by \[ \Omega\to -{1\over 2} \int_{\Omega} | \nabla u_{\Omega}| ^2+\tau P(\Omega), \] where \(u_{\Omega}\) is the solution of the Dirichlet problem \[ -\Delta u_{\Omega}=f\text{ in }\Omega, \quad u_{\Omega}=0\text{ on } \partial\Omega,\quad | \nabla u_{\Omega}| \to 0\text{ at }\infty, \] for some density \(f\), \(P\) is the perimeter and \(\tau>0\) is a constant. The authors are interested in exterior shapes \(\Omega\) for which the total energy reaches a minimum under the volume constraint \(S({}^c\Omega)=S_{0}\), where \(S\) is the Lebesgue measure, \({}^c\Omega\) is the complement of \(\Omega\), and \(S_{0}\) is prescribed. A necessary condition for minimality is that \(\Omega\) be a critical shape for the functional \[ E(\Omega)=-{1\over 2} \int_{\Omega} | \nabla u_{\Omega}| ^2+\tau P(\Omega)-\Lambda S({}^c\Omega), \] where \(\Lambda\) is a Lagrange multiplier. To decide whether such an equilibrium shape is a minimum, the authors need to look at the positivity of the second derivative of the functional \(E\) restricted to an adequate functional subspace. In this paper, they study the case of domains which are small analytic perturbations of the exterior of the unit disk.