Evolution of curvatures on a surface with boundary to prescribed functions (Q2634735)

The author considers an analogue of the problem of prescribing the Gaussian curvature for a Riemann surface \(M\) with boundary through studying the evolution of curvatures on \(M\). Let \(M\) be a compact Riemann with boundary and metric \(g_0\). Assume that \(f(x)\) is a smooth function on \(\overline{M}\) and denote by \(\sigma(x)\) the value of \(f\) in the interior and by \(\zeta(x)\) the value of \(f\) on the boundary. The problem is whether it is possible to find a metric \(g\) which is pointwise conformal to \(g_0\) such that \(\sigma(x)\) and \(\zeta(x)\) can be realized as the Gaussian curvature and the boundary geodesic curvature of \(g\) respectively. It is equivalent to solving the boundary value problem \[ \begin{cases} -\triangle_{g_0}u+K_0=\sigma(x)e^{2u},& \text{in } M,\\ \frac{\partial}{\partial \eta_{g_0}}u+\kappa_0=\zeta(x)e^u,& \text{on } \partial M, \end{cases} \] where \(\kappa_0\) and \(\partial/\partial\eta_{g_0}\) are the geodesic curvature and the outer normal derivative of \(g_0\) respectively. The main result of this paper is the following: {Theorem 1.2}. Suppose that \(f(x)<0\), then there exist a constant \(\lambda_\infty\) and a conformal metric \(g_\infty\) such that \(\lambda_\infty\sigma(x)\) and \(\lambda_\infty\zeta(x)\) can be realized as the Gaussian curvature and the boundary geodesic curvature of \(g_\infty\) respectively, i.e., the above system of equations has a solution with \(\sigma(x)\) and \(\zeta(x)\) replaced by \(\lambda_\infty\sigma(x)\) and \(\lambda_\infty\zeta(x)\), respectively. For a related paper see [\textit{P. T. Ho}, Indiana Univ. Math. J. 60, No. 5, 1517--1542 (2011; Zbl 1334.53066)].