The Dirichlet problem for the minimal hypersurface equation on arbitrary domains of a Riemannian manifold (Q2634728)

The authors study the following Dirichlet problem in the Riemannian setting: \[ \mathrm{div}\frac{\mathrm{grad} u}{\sqrt{1+|\mathrm{grad} u|^2}}=0 \text{ in }\Omega\subset M, \quad u\in C^2(\overline{\Omega}), \qquad u|_{\partial \Omega}=\varphi. \eqno{(1)} \] It is classically known [\textit{H. Jenkins} and \textit{J. Serrin}, J. Reine Angew. Math. 229, 170--187 (1968; Zbl 0159.40204)] that (1) is solvable for \(M=\mathbb{R}^n\) and any continuous boundary data \(\varphi\) only if the mean curvature of \(\Omega\) is everywhere nonnegative. In the present paper, the latter result is extended for arbitrary Riemannian manifolds. More specifically, the authors prove that if \(M\) is a complete \(n\)-dimensional Riemannian manifold, \(n \geq2\), \(\Omega\) is a bounded \(C^2\)-domain in \(M\), and \(\varphi\in C^2(\partial \Omega)\) is such that \(osc (\varphi)\) is bounded by a constant \(C\) depending only of \(|D^2\varphi|\), \(|D\varphi|\), the norm of the second fundamental form \(|A|\) and \(\mathrm{Ric}_M\) then the Dirichlet problem (1) is solvable. In particular, the authors give an explicit value for \(C\) which yields that when the mean curvature of \(\Omega\) is nonnegative then \(C=\infty\), i.e., the Dirichlet problem is solvable for any continuous boundary data. The authors generalize the Jenkins-Serrin approach to obtain the boundary gradient estimates. Their technique is based on the use of normal coordinates accomplished with the logarithm-type barriers. As an application, the authors obtain an existence and uniqueness result for solutions to the corresponding exterior Dirichlet problem for Hadamard manifolds satisfying SC convexity condition.