Stationary isothermic surfaces in Euclidean 3-space (Q2634868)

Given \(\Omega\) a domain of \(\mathbb R^N\), \(N\geq 2\), it is considered \(u(x,t)\) the unique bounded solution of the Cauchy problem \(\partial_t u=\Delta u\) on \(\mathbb R^N\times (0, +\infty)\), \(u(x,0)=\chi_{\Omega^c}(x)\) for \(x\in\mathbb R^N\). An hypersurface \(\Gamma\) is called a stationary isothermic surface of \(u\) if for each \(t>0\) the solution \(u(\cdot, t)\) is constant on \(\Gamma\). A domain \(\Omega\) is said uniformly dense in a hypersurface \(\Gamma\) of \(\mathbb R^N\) if there exists \(r_0\in (\mathrm{dist}(\Gamma, \partial \Omega), +\infty]\), such that for each \(r\in (0, r_0)\) de density \(\rho(x,r)\) is constant on \(x\in \Gamma\), where \(\rho(x,r)=|\Omega\cap B(x,r)|/| B(x,r)|\), with \(B(x,r)\) a ball on \(\mathbb R^N\). An hypersurface \(\Gamma\) is a stationary isothermic surface of \(u\) if and only if \(\Omega\) is uniformly dense in \(\Gamma\) with \(r_0=\infty\), a conclusion derived from the formula \[ 1-u(x,t)=2(4\pi t)^{-N/2}\int_0^\infty|\Omega \cap B(x, 2 \sqrt{t}s)|\, se^{-s^2}\,ds. \] In a previous work of the first and third authors with \textit{R. Magnanini} et al. [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 358, No. 11, 4821--4841 (2006; Zbl 1129.35005)] it is studied the case \(\Omega\) uniformly dense on \(\Gamma \subset \partial \Omega\) and shown that if \(\partial \Omega\) is connected and \(N=3\) then \(\partial \Omega\) is a sphere, a circular cylinder or a minimal surface, and in the later case if it is an embedded minimal surface of finite total curvature then it must be a plane. The case \(\partial \Omega\) bounded and with empty intersection with \(\Gamma\) was also considered and shown that \(\partial \Omega\) is a sphere. In the present work the authors consider the case \(N=3\), \(\partial \Omega\) unbounded, connected, with empty intersection with \(\Gamma\), and assuming \(\partial \Omega= \partial (\bar{\Omega}^c)\) the authors obtain a complete classification in Theorem 1.1: Let \(D\) be a domain with \(\bar{D}\subset \Omega\) and consider a connected component \(\Gamma\) of \(\partial \Omega\) satisfying \(\mathrm{dist}(\Gamma,\partial \Omega)=\mathrm{dist}(\partial D, \partial \Omega) =R\). If \(\Omega\) is uniformly dense in \(\Gamma\) and \(D\) satisfies the interior cone condition on \(\Gamma\), then \(\partial \Omega\) and \(\Gamma\) must be either parallel planes or co-axial circular cylinders. They show \(\Gamma\) to be a real analytic embedded hypersurface such that the distance of any its points to \(\partial \Omega\) is constant \(=R\), and the principal curvatures of \(\partial \Omega\), on a suitable connected component \(\gamma\) and on the inward unit normal direction satisfy \(\kappa_j < R^{-1}\) and \(\Pi_j(1-R\kappa_j)=c\) a positive constant. It turns out that if \(\rho_\ast=R/(1+\sqrt{c})\), the suface \(\Gamma^\ast=\{x\in \Omega:\mathrm{dist}(x,\partial \Omega)=\rho_\ast\}\) is analytic, lies between \(\partial \Omega\) and \(\Gamma\) parallel to both, embedded in \(\mathbb R^3\) with constant mean curvature \(H^\ast\) and the Gauss curvature \(K^\ast\) satisfies \(\|\nabla K^\ast\|^2=\Psi(K^\ast)\), where \(\Psi(t)\) is a polynomial of degree 4 at most (thus if not constant it is a transnormal function). Using a suitable principal coordinate system of \(\partial \Omega\) describing the hypersurface as a real analytical graph centered at a point \(\xi\in \partial \Omega\) and using a spherical coordinate system for \(\partial B(x,R+s)\cap \Omega^c\) centered at \(x\in \Gamma\) and some Puiseux series on \(s\), the authors obtain an asymptotic expansion of \(\sigma(x,r)=|\Omega^c\cap \partial B(x,r)| /|\partial B(x,r)|\), when \(r=R+s\to R+0\), which coefficients on \(s/R\) and \((s/R)^2\) paly a fundamental role, and are used to obtain an expression for \(\|\nabla K^\ast\|^2\) in terms of the principal curvatures of \(\Gamma^\ast\). The proof of Theorem 1.1 follows by showing \(K^\ast\) must be constant. It it were not, \(K^\ast\) would be a transnormal function on \(\Gamma_\ast\), and known results on transnormal functions and a combination of the theory of properly embedded surfaces minimal or with constant mean curvature leads to the conclusion \(\Gamma^\ast\) is an unduloid, a catenoid or a helicoid. Inspection of the transnormal condition on \(K^\ast\) and the asymptotic equation lead to contradictions on all cases. In the last section the case \(\Gamma=\partial \Omega\) and \(N=3\) is considered generalizing a previous result in the above cited paper with the following Theorem 5.1, by using that previous result and the classical and recent theory of minimal surfaces: If \(S\) is a complete embedded minimal surface of finite topology in \(\mathbb R^3\) and \(S=\partial \Omega\), with \(\Omega\) one of the connected components of \(S^c\). If \(\Omega\) is uniformly dense in \(S\), then \(S\) must be either a plane or a helicoid.