Curves and surfaces with constant nonlocal mean curvature: meeting Alexandrov and Delaunay (Q1628525)

Let $\alpha\in (0,1)$ and $E$ be an open set in $\mathbb{R}^{n}$ with $C^{2}$-boundary, the nonlocal mean curvature (NMC) $H_{E}(x)$ at a point $x$ on the boundary of $E$ is defined as \[ H_{E}(x)=\lim_{\epsilon\rightarrow 0}\left[\int_{y\notin E,\ |y-x|\geq \epsilon}|x-y|^{-(N+\alpha)}dy-\int_{y\in E,\ |y-x|\geq \epsilon}|x-y|^{-(N+\alpha)}dy\right]. \] In the light of the classical results on the usual mean curvature, the paper under review establishes results of Alexandrov and Delaunay type for the nonlocal mean curvature. The first main result is of Alexandrov type. It says: In $\mathbb{R}^{n}$, a non-empty bounded open set with sufficiently regular and constant NMC boundary must be a ball. The second main result is a construction of non-compact open sets in $\mathbb{R}^{2}$ with constant NMC boundary curves. It says that there is a continuous family of (mutually different) periodic bands in $\mathbb{R}^{2}$ such that \begin{itemize} \item the boundary curves of each element in the family have constant NMC, \item the family converges to the straight band. \end{itemize} In the setting of constant NMC, this is the analogue of Delaunay's periodic cylinders in $\mathbb{R}^{3}$ with constant (usual) mean curvature. The difference between the NMC and the usual mean curvature is that these non-compact constant NMC boundaries already appear in $\mathbb{R}^{2}$, which has lower dimension than $\mathbb{R}^{3}$ that visualizes the Delaunay cylinders. While two parallel straight lines in $\mathbb{R}^{2}$ have zero mean curvature, they have positive constant nonlocal mean curvature. The authors' proof of the first main result is by moving plane argument. In the NMC setting, though there is no local comparison, there is a global comparison principle. One of the consequences is the connectedness of the open set (which is not assumed). The authors' proof of the second main result is to perturb the straight band using the Lyapunov-Schmidt method. By adding parameters, the authors show that the linearized operator is invertible between the Banach spaces suitable for this nonlocal problem. Then, the implicit function theorem completes the perturbation. The authors mention that the first main result is independently obtained at the same time by \textit{G. Ciraolo} et al. [J. Reine Angew. Math. 741, 275--294 (2018; Zbl 1411.53030)].