Existence of self-Cheeger sets on Riemannian manifolds (Q2411683)

If \(A\) is a measurable set and \(\Omega\) is an open set in a smooth compact Riemannian manifold \((M,g)\) of dimension \(N\geq 2\), then the relative perimeter \(P(A,\Omega)\) of \(A\) in \(\Omega\) is defined as \(P(A,\Omega)=\sup\left\{\int\limits_A\text{div}_g(\xi)\mathrm{d}v_g\right\}\), where \(\mathrm{d}v_g\) is the Riemannian volume element and \(\xi\) is a vector of the set \(C^1_c(\Omega)\) of \(C^1\) vector fields with compact support in \(\Omega\) and \(|\xi|\leq1\). The perimeter \(P(A)\) of a measurable set \(A\subset M\) is the relative perimeter \(P(A,M)\) of \(A\) in \(M\). For an open set \(\Omega\) in \((M,g)\) with smooth boundary \(\partial \Omega\), the Cheeger constant \(h(\Omega)\) of \(\Omega\) is defined as \(h(\Omega)=\inf\limits_A\frac{P(A)}{|A|}\), where the domain \(A\) varies over all measurable subsets of \(\Omega\) with finite perimeter and positive \(N\)-dimensional Riemannian volume denoted by \(\|A\|\). Any set \(F\) in \(\Omega\) which realizes the infimum \(h(\Omega)\) is called a Cheeger set in \(\Omega\). If \(\Omega\) is a minimizer for \(h(\Omega)\), then it is called self-Cheeger, and \(\Omega\) is called uniquely self-Cheeger if any Cheeger set in \(\Omega\) is equal to \(\Omega\) up to a Riemann measure zero set. In this paper, the author proves the existence of a family of self-Cheeger sets in \((M,g)\). It is shown that if \((M,g)\) is a smooth compact Riemannian manifold of dimension \(N\geq 2\), then there exists a family of uniquely self-Cheeger sets \((\Omega _\varepsilon )_{\varepsilon \in (0,\varepsilon _0)}\) with \(h(\Omega_\varepsilon)=\frac{N}{\varepsilon}\) for all \(\varepsilon\in(0,\varepsilon_0)\). The domains \(\Omega _\varepsilon \subset \mathcal{M}\) are perturbations of geodesic balls of radius \(\varepsilon \) centered at \(p \in {M}\), and in particular, if \(p_0\) is a non-degenerate critical point of the scalar curvature \(s\) of \(g\), then the family \((\partial \Omega _\varepsilon )_{\varepsilon \in (0,\varepsilon _0)}\) constitutes a smooth foliation of a neighborhood of \(p_0\). Also, it is shown that if \(\Omega\) is a bounded domain in \(M\) with Lipschitz boundary and if there exists a function \(u\in C^2(\overline\Omega)\) such that \(-\Delta_gu=1\) in \(\Omega\) and \(u=0\) and \(g(\nabla_gu,\eta)=-\lambda\) on \(\partial \Omega _\varepsilon\), where \(\lambda\) is a positive constant, \(\Delta_g=\mathrm{div}(\nabla_g)\) is the Laplace-Beltrami operator, and \(\eta\) is the unit outer normal of \(\partial\Omega\), then \(\Omega\) is uniquely self-Cheeger set with Cheeger constant \(\frac1\lambda\) if \(\mathrm{Ric}_g(\nabla u,\nabla u)>-\frac1N\). Finally, the author shows that there exists \(\varepsilon_0>0\) such that for all \(\varepsilon\in(0,\varepsilon _0)\) there exist a smooth domain \(\Omega_\varepsilon\) and a function \(u_\varepsilon\in C^2(\overline\Omega)\) such that \(-\Delta_gu_\varepsilon=1\) in \(\Omega_\varepsilon\) and \(u_\varepsilon=0\) and \(g(\nabla_gu_\varepsilon,\nu_\varepsilon)=-\frac{\varepsilon}{N}\) on \(\partial \Omega _\varepsilon\).