Stationary isothermic surfaces and some characterizations of the hyperplane in the \(N\)-dimensional Euclidean space (Q2269627)

A hypersurface \(\Gamma\subset\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^N\), \(N\geq 3\), is said to be a stationary isothermic surface of a bounded solution \(u\) of the heat equation: \[ \begin{alignedat}{2} \partial_t u&=\Delta u\quad &&\text{in }\Omega\times (0,\infty),\\ u&= 1\quad &&\text{on }\partial\times\Omega\times(0, \infty),\\ u&= 0\quad &&\text{on }\Omega\times 0,\end{alignedat} \] if \(u(\cdot, t)\) remains constant on \(\Gamma\) at each time \(t\). Assume \(\Omega\) satisfies the uniform exterior sphere condition and \(\Omega\) is given by \[ \Omega= \{x= (x',x_N)\in \mathbb{R}^N\mid x_N= \varphi(x')\}, \] where \(\varphi= \varphi(x')\) is a continuous function on \(\mathbb{R}^{N-1}\). It is proved that \(\partial\Omega\) is a hyperplane if there exists a stationary isothermic surface \(\Gamma\) and either one of the following conditions holds: {\parindent=6,5mm \begin{itemize}\item[(1)] \(N= 3\); \item[(2)] \(N\geq 4\) and \(\varphi\) is globally Lipschitz continuous on \(\mathbb{R}^{N-1}\); \item[(3)] \(N\geq 4\) and there exists a nonempty open subset \(A\subset\partial\Omega\) such that either the mean curvature is nonnegative on \(A\) or all the principal curvatures are nonpositive on \(A\). \end{itemize}} This result improves previous results of the same authors [Indiana Univ. Math. J. 56, No. 6, 2723--2739 (2007; Zbl 1140.35460)].