Symmetry of stationary hypersurfaces in hyperbolic space (Q2498425)

As is well known, there are three kinds of complete non-compact umbilical hypersurfaces \(\Pi\) in the hyperbolic space \(\mathbb H^{n+1}\): a totally geodesic hyperplane \(\mathbb H^n,\) an equidistant hypersurface to it, and a horosphere. If we imagine \(\Pi\) as a supporting solid hypersurface for a liquid drop on one side of \(\Pi\) resting on \(\Pi\) (the space on each side of \(\Pi\) is filled with ''air''), then in the presence of a uniform gravity field acting orthogonally to \(\Pi\) the question is to determine the shape of such drop in the state of equillibrium. Mathematically, a drop is modelled by a bounded domain \(X\) of \(\mathbb H^{n+1}\) with the boundary \(\partial X = S \cup \Omega\) decomposed into the liquid-air interface \(S\) and the liquid-solid interface \(\Omega\). Under the physical principles involved, if the system is in the equillibrium the shape of the boundary of the drop (the stationary hypersurface) is determined by two conditions: (1) The mean curvature at a point of \(S\) is a function that depends only on the distance to \(\Pi\); (2) The angle at which \(S\) intersects \(\Pi\) along \(\partial S = S \cap \Pi\) is constant (depending on the materials). The author proves that under these conditions there exists a geodesic \(\gamma\) orthogonal to \(\Pi\) for which \(\partial X\) is rotationally symmetric, i.e. the shape of the liquid drop is axially symmetric with respect to \(\gamma\). The proof relies on Alexandrov's reflection method. This result extends the result of \textit{H. C. Wente} in Euclidean space [Pac. J. Math. 88, 387--397 (1980; Zbl 0473.76086)]. The author also extends the method to obtain the shapes of possible stationary hypersurfaces of liquid bridges between two supporting umbilical hypersurfaces and also proves the following result: If \(M^n\) is an embedded compact hypersurface on one side of \(\Pi\) whose boundary is the \((n-1)-\)sphere \(S^{n-1}\) in \(\Pi\), so that the mean curvature depends only on the distance to \(\Pi\) then \(M\) is axially symmetric with respect to a geodesic orthogonal to \(\Pi\), i.e. in this case \(M\) inherits the symmetry from its boundary.