A quasiconformal Hopf soap bubble theorem (Q2135753)

Heinz Hopf proved that a CMC sphere immersed in \(\mathbb{R}^3\) is a round sphere. This result has been generalized in many directions, for example [the first two authors, J. Differ. Geom. 116, No. 3, 459--480 (2020 Zbl 1468.53050)] proved that an elliptic Weingarten surface is a round sphere. Also, a sphere verifying \(H=f(H^2-K)\) (where \(f\) is a smooth function, \(H\) is the mean curvature and \(K\) is the Gaussian curvature) is a round sphere, see [\textit{R. Bryant}, ``Complex analysis and a class of Weingarten surfaces'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1105.5589}]. The present paper shows that a sphere verifying a \textit{quasiconformal} inequality \[ (H-c)^2\leq \mu(H^2-K) \] where \(\mu,c\) are constants, \(\mu<1\), is a round sphere. The authors also consider a immersed sphere \(\Sigma\) in \(\mathbb{R}^3\) of principal curvatures \(\kappa_1\geq\kappa_2\) and an ovaloid \(S_0\) of principal curvatures \(\kappa_1^0\geq\kappa_2^0\). They show that if the two surfaces are quasiconformal, i.e., for some \(\Lambda\leq -1\) \[(\kappa_1-\kappa_1^0)^2+(\kappa_2-\kappa_2^0)^2\leq 2\Lambda (\kappa_1-\kappa_1^0)(\kappa_2-\kappa_2^0)\] then \(\Sigma\) is a translation of \(S_0\). This generalizes a result of \textit{Q. Ha} et al. [Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 56, No. 4, 425--432 (2003 Zbl 1236.35025)]. To quote the abstract, ``the proof relies on the Bers-Nirenberg representation of solutions to linear elliptic equations with discontinuous coefficients.''