Near-sphere lattices with constant nonlocal mean curvature (Q1709776)

If \(\Sigma\) is a smooth oriented hypersurface in \(\mathbb R^N\) with unit normal vector field \(\nu\), then a nonlocal or fractional mean curvature of order \(\alpha\in(0,1)\) at a point \(x\in\Sigma\) is defined as \(H(\Sigma;x)=\frac{2d_{N,\alpha}}{\alpha}\int_\Sigma\frac{(y-x)\cdot\nu(y)}{|y-x|^{N+\alpha}}dV(y)\), where \(dV\) is the volume element on \(\Sigma\) and the constant \(d_{N,\alpha}\) is selected so that \(H(\Sigma;\cdot)\) converges locally uniformly to the classical mean curvature as \(\alpha\to 1\). The nonlocal mean curvature is the Euler-Lagrange equation for the fractional perimeter functional. Hypersurfaces with zero nonlocal mean curvature are called nonlocal minimal surfaces. If \(\mathbb R^M\) is a subspace of \(\mathbb R^N\) with a basis \(B=\{\mathbf{a}_1,\dots,\mathbf{a}_M\}\), then a subset \({\mathcal L}=\left\{\sum\limits_{i=1}^Mk_i\mathbf{a}_i\right\}\) of \(\mathbb R^M\) with \(k=(k_1,\dots,k_M)\in\mathbb Z^M\) is an \(M\)-dimensional lattice. If \(S=S^{N-1}\subset\mathbb R^N\) is the unit sphere, then \(S+r{\mathcal L}=\bigcup\limits_{p\in{\mathcal L}}(S+rp)\subset\mathbb R^N\) is the union of disjoint unit spheres centered at the lattice points in \(r{\mathcal L}\) with \(r>0\). The set \(S+r{\mathcal L}\) is of constant classical mean curvature equal to 1. If \(S_\varphi=\{(1+\varphi(\sigma))\sigma;\;\sigma\in S\}\) is a deformed sphere, where \(\varphi\in C^{1,\beta}(S)\), \(\beta\in(\alpha,1)\), and \(\|\varphi\|_{L^\infty(S)}<1\), then a noncompact hypersurface \(S_\varphi+r{\mathcal L}=\bigcup\limits_{p\in{\mathcal L}}(S_\varphi+rp)\) of class \(C^{1,\beta}(S)\), which is periodic with respect to \(r{\mathcal L}\)-translations, is called the deformed sphere lattice or near-sphere lattice. In this paper, the authors consider unbounded sets of \(\mathbb{R}^N\) whose boundary has constant nonlocal mean curvature and study nonlocal analogues of the set given by an infinite compound of aligned round spheres, tangent or disconnected. In a more general setting, they construct constant nonlocal mean curvature sets which are the countable union of a certain bounded domain and all its translations through a periodic integer lattice of dimension \(M\leq N\). These sets form a \(C^2\) branch emanating from the unit ball alone, where the parameter in the branch is essentially the distance to the closest lattice point. Thus, the new translated near-balls or near-spheres appear from infinity. For infinite lattices, a finite disjoint union of two or more bounded sets cannot have constant nonlocal mean curvature. The authors prove that if \({\mathcal L}\) is an \(M\)-dimensional lattice, then there exist \(r_0>0\) and a \(C^2\)-curve \((r_0,\infty)\to C^{1,\beta}(S)\), \(r\mapsto\varphi_r\) such that (i)\, \(\varphi_r\to 0\) in \(C^{1,\beta}(S)\) as \(r\to\infty\), (ii)\, for every \(r>r_0\) the function \(\varphi_r:S\to\mathbb R\) is even, (iii)\, for every \(r>r_0\) the hypersurface \(S_{\varphi_r}+r{\mathcal L}\) has constant nonlocal mean curvature given by \(H(S_{\varphi_r}+r{\mathcal L};\cdot)=H(S;\cdot)\), (iv)\, if \(1\leq M\leq N-1\), then the functions \(\varphi_r\) are non-constant on \(S\) for \(r>r_0\). Also, they show that if \(r_1>r_0\) and \((r_1\to\infty)\to C^{1,\beta}(S)\), \(r\mapsto\widetilde\varphi_r\) is another, not necessarily continuous, curve satisfying (i), (ii), and (iii), then \(\widetilde\varphi_r=\varphi_r\) for \(r\) sufficiently large.