Convex symmetrization and Pólya--Szegö inequality. (Q1421953)

Given a nonnegative convex function \(H\) on \({\mathbb R^n}\) which is homogeneous of degree one, the following inequality holds [cf. \textit{A. Alvino}, \textit{V. Ferone G. Trombetti} and \textit{P.-L. Lions}, Ann. Inst. Henri Poincaré, Anal. Non Linéaire {14}, 275--293 (1997; Zbl 0877.35040)]: \[ J(u):=\int_{\mathbb R^n}H(\nabla u)^2\,dx\geq \int_{\mathbb R^n}H(\nabla u^0)^2\,dx, \] where \(u^0\) denotes the ``convex symmetrization'' of \(u\), that is, a function whose level sets have the same measure as those of \(u\) and are homothetic to the polar of the level set \(\{x\in {\mathbb R^n}\mid H(x)<1\}\). In the particular case \(H(x)=| x| \) the inequality obtained is known as the Pólya-Szegö inequality. The main results of this paper are devoted to the equality problem in the above inequality (and in even slightly more general inequalities) stating that if \(H\) is strictly convex then \(J(u)=J(u^0)\) for some compactly supported function \(u\) without flat zones if and only if \(u\) agrees almost everywhere with a translate of \(u^0\). The proof utilizes a generalized version of the classical isoperimetric inequality.