Existence of solutions to a general geometric elliptic variational problem

Length, area, volume, other geometric measure theory (28A75) Geometric measure and integration theory, integral and normal currents in optimization (49Q15) Variational problems in a geometric measure-theoretic setting (49Q20) Projective differential geometry (53A20)

Abstract: We consider the problem of minimising an inhomogeneous anisotropic elliptic functional in a class of closed

m

dimensional subsets of

m a t h b f R^{n}

which is stable under taking smooth deformations homotopic to the identity and under local Hausdorff limits. We prove that the minimiser exists inside the class and is an

(m a t h s c r H^{m}, m)

~rectifiable set in the sense of Federer. The class of competitors encodes a notion of spanning a boundary. We admit unrectifiable and non-compact competitors and boundaries, and we make no restrictions on the dimension

m

and the co-dimension

n - m

other than

1 l e m < n

. An important tool for the proof is a novel smooth deformation theorem. The skeleton of the proof and the main ideas follow Almgren's 1968 paper. In the end we show that classes of sets spanning some closed set

B

in homological and cohomological sense satisfy our axioms.

Review text

For an open set \(U\subset\mathbb R^n\), a Radon measure \(\mu\) on \(U\), and a Borel subset \(E\), the restriction \(\mu\llcorner E\) of \(\mu\) to \(E\) is the measure defined by \([\mu\llcorner E](A)=\mu(E\cap A)\). A \(m\)-varifold on \(U\) is a positive Radon measure \(V\) on \({\mathbb G}(U)=U\times\mathbb G(n,m)\) and \(\mathbb V_m(U)\) is the set of all \(m\)-varifolds on \(U\), if \({\mathbb G}(n,m)\) is the Grassmannian of \(m\)-planes in \(\mathbb R^n\). A set \(K\subset\mathbb R^n\) is said to be \(({\mathcal H}^m,m)\) rectifiable if it can be covered, up to an \({\mathcal H}^m\)-negligible set, by countably many \(C^1\) \(m\)-dimensional submanifolds, where \({\mathcal H}^m\) is the \(m\)-dimensional Hausdorff measure. A positive Radon measure \(\mu\) is said to be \(({\mathcal H}^m,m)\) rectifiable if there exists a \(({\mathcal H}^m,m)\) rectifiable set \(K\subset U\) such that \(\mu=\theta{\mathcal H}^m\llcorner K\) for some Borel function \(\theta:\mathbb R^n\to(0,\infty)\). If \(K\subset\mathbb R^n\) is compact and \(A, B\subset\mathbb R^n\), then \(d_{{\mathcal H},K}(A,B)=\max\{\sup\{\text{dist}(x,A);\;x\in K\cap B\}, \sup\{\text{dist}(x, B);\;x\in K\cap A\}\}\). A function \(f:\mathbb R^n\to\mathbb R^n\) is said to be a basic deformation in an open subset \(U\) if \(f\) is of class \(C^1\) and there exists a bounded convex open set \(V\subset U\) such that \(f(x)=x\) for \(x\in V\sim\mathbb R^n\) and \(f[V]\subset V\). If \(f\) is a composition of a finite number of basic deformations, then \(f\) is said to be an admissible deformation in \(U\), and the set of all such deformations is denoted by \({\mathcal D}(U)\). The class \({\mathcal C}\) is said to be a good class in an open set \(U\in\mathbb R^n\) if (i)\, \({\mathcal C}\neq\varnothing\), (ii)\,each \(S\in{\mathcal C}\) is a closed subset in \(\mathbb R^n\), (iii)\, if \(S\in{\mathcal C}\) and \(f\in{\mathcal D}(U)\), then \(f[S]\in{\mathcal C}\), (iv)\, if \(S_i\in{\mathcal C}\) for \(i\in\mathbb N\), \(S\subset\mathbb R^n\), and \(\lim\limits_{i\to\infty}d_{{\mathcal H},K}(S_i\cap U,S\cap U)=0\) for all compact sets \(K\subset U\), then \(S\in{\mathcal C}\). A function \(F:\mathbb R^n\times\mathbb G(n,m)\to[0,\infty)\) of class \(C^k\) for some non-negative integer \(k\in\mathbb N\) is called a \(C^k\) integrand, and if \(F\) is a \(C^k\) integrand, then the functional \(\Phi_F(V):{\mathbb V}_m(\mathbb R^n)\to[0,\infty)\) is defined as \(\Phi_F(V)=\int F(x,S)dV(x,S)\), and another \(C^k\) integrand \(F^x\) is defined as \(F^x(y,S)=F(x,S)\) for \(y\in\mathbb R^n\) and \(S\in {\mathbb G}(n,m)\). An \(C^0\) integrand \(F\) is called elliptic if there exists a continuous function \(c:\mathbb R^n\to(0,\infty)\) such that \(\Psi_{F^x}(S)-\Psi_{F^x}(D)\geq c(x)({\mathcal H}^m(S)-{\mathcal H}^m(D))\) for all \(T\in {\mathbb G}(n,m)\), where \(D=B(0,1)\cap T\) is a unit \(m\)-dimensional disc in \(T\), \(S\) is a compact subset of \(\mathbb R^n\), \({\mathcal H}^m(S)<\infty\), and \(S\) cannot be deformed onto \(R=\text{Bdry}B(0,1)\cap T\) by any Lipschitz map \(f:\mathbb R^n\to\mathbb R^n\) satisfying \(f(x)=x\) for \(x\in\mathbb R\). In this paper, the authors deal with an abstract Plateau's problem where the notion of area of a competitor \(S\) is replaced by the value of a functional \(\Phi_F\) on \(S\) for an elliptic integrand \(F\). If \(S\) is \(({\mathcal H}^m,m)\) rectifiable, then \(F\) is fed with pairs \((x,T)\), where \(x\in S\) and \(T\) is the approximate tangent plane to \(S\) at \(x\). The integrand \(F\) provides an inhomogeneous and anisotropic weight for the Hausdorff measure. If \(F\equiv 1\), then \(F\) is called the area integrand. Ellipticity means roughly that a flat \(m\)-dimensional disc \(D\) minimizes \(F\) amongst surfaces that cannot be retracted onto the boundary of \(D\). The main result provides existence of an \(({\mathcal H}^m,m)\) rectifiable set which minimizes \(\Phi_F\) inside an axiomatically defined good class of competitors. The authors prove that if \(U\subset\mathbb R^n\) is an open set, \({\mathcal C}\) is a good class in \(U\), \(F\) is a bounded elliptic \(C^0\) integrand, and \(\mu=\inf\{\Phi_F(T\cap U);\;T\in{\mathcal C}\}\), then for \(\mu\in(0,\infty)\) there exist \(S\in{\mathcal C}\) and a sequence \(\{S_i\in{\mathcal C}\}\), \(i\in\mathbb N\) such that (i)\, \(S\cap U\) is \(({\mathcal H}^m,m)\) rectifiable; in particular \({\mathcal{H}}(S\cap U)<\infty\), (ii)\, \(\lim\limits_{i\to\infty}\Phi_F(S_i\cap U)=\Phi_F(S\cap U)=\mu\), (iii)\ , for a special \(m\)-varifold \(v_m\), \(\lim\limits_{i\to\infty} v_m(S_i\cap U)=v_m(S_i\cap U)\) in \({\mathbb V}_m(U)\), and (iv)\, \(\lim\limits_{i\to\infty}d_{{\mathcal H},K}(S_i\cap U,S\cap U)=0\) for any compact set \(K\subset U\). Furthermore, if \(\mathbb R^n\sim U\) is compact and there exists a \(\Phi_F\)-minimizing sequence in \({\mathcal C}\) consisting only of compact sets, but not necessarily uniformly bounded, then \(\text{diam}(\text{spt}\|V\|)<\infty\) and \(\sup\{\text{diam}(S_i\cap U);\;i\in\mathbb N\}<\infty\).

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