The evolution of \(H\)-surfaces with a Plateau boundary condition (Q2259430)

The authors study the heat flow associated with the classical Plateau problem for surfaces in \(\mathbb{R}^3\) of prescribed mean curvature \(H\) on the unit ball \(B\in \mathbb{R}^2\); namely, for a given Jordan curve \(\Gamma\subset \mathbb{R}^3\), a prescribed mean curvature function \(H:\mathbb{R}^3\to \mathbb{R}\) and an initial datum \(u_0:B\to\mathbb{R}^3\) satisfying the Plateau condition (i.e., that \(u_0|_{\partial B}\to \Gamma\) is a homeomorphism) this problem amounts to finding a solution \(u:B\times(0,\infty)\to \mathbb{R}^3\) of \[ \begin{cases} \partial_tu-\Delta u=-2(H\circ u)D_1u\times D_2u\text{ in } B\times(0,\infty);\\ u(\cdot,t)=u_0 \text{ on } B\\ u(\cdot,t)|_{\partial B}:\partial B\to\Gamma \text{ is weakly monotone for all } t>0. \end{cases}\tag{\(\ast\)} \] The monotonicity condition means that \(u(\cdot,t)|_{\partial B}\) is the uniform limit of orientation-preserving homeomorphisms from \(\partial B\) onto \(\Gamma\). The Plateau problem for surfaces of prescribed mean curvature has been studied extensively, with various existence results obtained by Heinz, Hildebrandt, Gulliver and Spruck, Steffen, and Wente. For example, the result of Hildebrandt ensures the existence of a \(H\)-surface contained in a ball \(B_R\) of radius \(R\) when \(\Gamma\) is a closed, rectifiable Jordan curve contained in \(B_R\) and the condition \(|H|\leq 1/R\) on \(B_R\) holds, whereas Steffen introduces an isoperimetric condition on \(H\). In contrast, the parabolic problem (\(\ast\)) has received less attention, although some results are known. For example, Chang and Liu have obtained global weak solutions which sub-converge as \(t\to\infty\) to a conformal solution of the Plateau problem in the important special case \(H\equiv 0\), and Rey has obtained \textit{smooth} global solutions in \(B_R\) under the Hildebrandt-type requirement that \(|u_0|<R\) on \(B\) and \(|H|<1/R\) for a Lipschitz continuous \(H:B_R\to\mathbb{R}\). We note that one cannot, in general, expect the existence of a smooth global solution on \(B\times(0,\infty)\) without some smallness condition on \(H\), due to energy concentration in finite time. In this paper (and a previous paper with \textit{V. Bögelein} et al. [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 365, No. 9, 4633--4677 (2013; Zbl 1293.53009)] on the corresponding Cauchy-Dirichlet problem) the authors obtain global weak solutions to (\(\ast\)) under an isoperimetric condition for the prescribed mean curvature function analogous to that used by Steffen for the stationary problem. Roughly speaking, the problem (\(\ast\)) has a weak solution contained in a closed convex set \(A\subset \mathbb{R}^3\) for initial data \(u_0\in W^{1,2}(B,A)\) provided \(H:A\to\mathbb{R}\) is bounded and continuous, is bounded in absolute value by the smallest principal curvature of \(\partial A\) at points \(a\in \partial A\), and satisfies \[ 2\left|\int_E H\right|\leq \mathrm{P}(E) \] for every set \(E\subset \mathbb{R}^3\) with finite perimeter \(\mathrm{P}(E)\) and boundary contained in \(A\). It is then shown that the solution converges weakly in \(W^{1,2}(B,\mathbb{R}^3)\) along a sequence of times \(t_i\to\infty\) to a conformal solution \(u_\infty\in C^0(\overline B,\mathbb{R}^3)\cap C_{\mathrm{loc}}^{1,\alpha}(B,\mathbb{R}^3)\) of the Plateau problem. Moreover, if \(H\) is Hölder continuous, then \(u_\infty\) is a classical solution of the Plateau problem.