On complete hypersurfaces with constant mean curvature and finite \(L^p\)-norm curvature in \(\mathbb R^{n+1}\) (Q2581189)

Let \(M\) be an oriented hypersurface of \(\mathbb R^{n+1}\) with constant mean curvature \(H\). The hypersurface is said to be strongly stable if for all piecewise smooth functions \(f:M\rightarrow \mathbb R\) with compact support, we have that \(\int_{M}| \nabla f| ^{2}\,dv\geq \int_{M}| At| ^{2}f^{2}\,dv\), where \(dv\) is the volume element and \(A\) the shape operator. Denote by \(\phi =A-HI\), the trace-free second fundamental form, where \(I\) stands for the identity tensor of \(M\). The integral \(\int_{M}| \phi| ^{n}dv\) is called the \(L^{n}\)-norm curvature. By using a rescaling method, a curvature estimate is given. This estimate is used to prove the main result: Let \(M\) be a complete non-compact oriented hypersurface with constant mean curvature \(H\) in \(\mathbb R^{n+1}\), \(n\geq 2\), and finite \(L^{n}\)-norm curvature. Then \(M\) is minimal and so \(M\) is a hyperplane provided it is strongly stable.