Soap films with gravity and almost-minimal surfaces (Q2335348)

Let \(\Gamma\) be a compact, orientable \((n-1)\)-dimensional surface without boundary in \(\mathbb{R}^{n+1}\), and let \(\{M_j\}_j\) be a sequence of compact, orientable \(n\)-dimensional surfaces in \(\mathbb{R}^{n+1}\) with boundaries \(\Gamma_j=f_j(\Gamma)\) for maps \(f_j\) converging in \(C^1\) to the identity map, and such that \[ \sup_{j\in\mathbb{N}}\Big\{\max_{x\in M_j}|x|, \mathcal{H}^n(M_j)\Big\}<\infty\,,\qquad \lim_{j\to\infty}\int_{M_j}|H_{M_j}|\,d\mathcal{H}^n=0\,, \] where \(\mathcal{H}^n\) denotes the \(n\)-dimensional Hausdorff measure in \(\mathbb{R}^{n+1}\). Suppose that \(\Gamma\) satisfies the following two properties. (\(P_1\)) There are finitely many minimal surfaces \(\{N_i\}_i\) spanned by \(\Gamma\), possibly including in the count ''singular'' minimal surfaces, whose singularities are anyway located away from \(\Gamma\). (\(P_2\)) For each connected component \(\Gamma'\) of \(\Gamma\), the set of points \(x\in\Gamma'\) such that, for some unit vectors \(\nu_1\) and \(\nu_2\) with \(\nu_1\cdot\nu_2<1\), the inclusion \[ \Gamma\subset x+\Big\{y\in\mathbb{R}^{n+1}\,:\,y\cdot\nu_1\geq 0\,,y\cdot\nu_2\geq 0\Big\} \] holds, is a set of positive \(\mathcal{H}^{n-1}\)-measure. The main aim of this paper is to prove the following. \(\mathbf{Theorem.}\) (i.) There exists a single minimal surface \(N_i\) such that \(M_j\to N_i\) as \(j\to\infty\), in the sense that there exist open sets \(\{E_j\}_j\) with smooth boundary such that \[ \lim_{j\to\infty}|E_j|+\mathcal{H}^n\Big(\partial E_j\setminus(N_i\cup M_j)\Big)=0\,, \] where \(|E_j|\) denotes the \((n+1)\)-dimensional volume of \(E_j\subset\mathbb{R}^{n+1}\). (ii.) If in addition \(\Gamma_j=\Gamma\), \(N_i\) has no singularities, and \(N_i\) is strictly stable, in the sense that, for a positive constant \(\lambda\), \[ \int_{N_i} |\nabla \varphi|^2 - |A_{N_i}|^2 \varphi^2 \geq \lambda \int_{N_i} \varphi^2, \qquad \forall \varphi \in H^{1}_0(N_i)\,, \] where \(|A_{N_i}|\) is the Hilbert-Schmidt norm of the second fundamental form of \(N_i \hookrightarrow \mathbb{R}^{n+1} \)), and if for some \(p>n\) we have a uniform bound \[ \sup_{j\in\mathbb{N}}\int_{M_j}|H_{M_j}|^p\,d\mathcal{H}^n<\infty\,, \] then there exist smooth functions \(u_j:N_i\to\mathbb{R}\) with \(u_j=0\) on \(\partial N_i\) and \(\|u_j\|_{C^1(N_i)}\to 0\) as \(j\to\infty\) such that \[ M_j=\Big\{x+u_j(x)\,\nu_{N_i}(x):x\in N_i\Big\}\,, \] and the following sharp estimates hold: \[ \|u_j\|_{C^0(N_{i_0})}\le C\,\Big(\int_{M_j}|H_{M_j}|^p\Big)^{1/p}\,, \] \[ \max\Big\{\mathcal{H}^n(M_j)-\mathcal{H}^n(N_{i_0}),\|u_j\|_{W^{1,2}(N_{i_0})}\Big\}\le C\,\Big(\int_{M_j}|H_{M_j}|^2\Big)^{1/2}\,, \] for a constant \(C=C(N_{i_0},p)\).