Finiteness of disjoint minimal graphs (Q1598409)

Let \(u\) be a solution to the minimal surface equation \(\text{div}(\nabla u\sqrt{(1+|\nabla u|^2})= 0\) defined on \(\Omega\) satisfying \(u= 0\) on \(\partial\Omega\), where \(\Omega\) is an open subset of \(\mathbb{R}^n\) with boundary given by \(\partial\Omega\). The graph \(G= \{(x,u(x))\mid x\in\Omega\}\) of \(u\) in \(\mathbb{R}^{n+1}\) is called a minimal graph supported on \(\Omega\). The main result of this paper states that there are only finitely many minimal graphs supported on disjoint open subsets of \(\mathbb{R}^n\). It is proved that the maximum possible number of such disjointly supported minimal graphs is \((n+1)2^{n+1}\).