Stability of anisotropic capillary surfaces between two parallel planes (Q818841)

The authors extend results of \textit{M. Athanassenas} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 377, 97--107 (1987; Zbl 0604.53003)] and \textit{Th. I. Vogel} [SIAM J. Appl. Math. 47, 516--525 (1987; Zbl 0627.53004)] on the stability of capillary surfaces between two parallel planes to anisotropic rotational symmetric surface energies. It is shown that any stable embedded equilibrium capillary surface between two horizontal planes with nonempty free boundary on these planes is either a sufficiently short cylinder or a suitable part of the Wulff shape which is a hemisphere in the case of a homogeneous energy functional, see Athanassenas or Vogel. The proof is based on previous studies of the authors into anisotropic Delaunay surfaces, a generalization of Wente's (1966) second variation formula and on explicit calculations similar to Athanassenas and Vogel.