Boundary value problems for the one-dimensional Willmore equation (Q2642935)

The authors study the one-dimensional Willmore equation under Navier and Dirichlet boundary conditions. Given a smooth immersed surface \(M \subset {\mathbb R^3}\), the Willmore functional is defined by the \(L^2\)-norm of the mean curvature of \(M\). The one-dimensional Willmore equation is the Euler-Lagrange equation of the one-dimensional Willmore functional which is the analogue of the surface case. Namely, if \(u = u(x):[0,1] \to {\mathbb R}^2\) is a plane curve, the Willmore functional becomes \[ W(u) = \int_u \kappa(x)^2\, ds(x) = \int_0^1 \kappa(x)^2 \sqrt{1+u'(x)^2}\, dx, \] where \(\kappa(x)\) is the curvature of the graph of \(u\) at the point \((x, u(x))\) which is given by \[ \kappa(x) = \frac{d}{dx}\left(\frac{u'(x)}{\sqrt{1+u'(x)^2}}\right) = \frac{u''(x)}{(1+u'(x)^2)^{3/2}} \] and \(s\) denotes the arc-length of \(u\). The Willmore equation takes the form \[ \frac{1}{\sqrt{1+u'(x)^2}}\frac{d}{dx}\left(\frac{\kappa'(x)}{\sqrt{1+u'(x)^2}}\right) + \frac{1}{2}\kappa^3(x) = 0,\quad x \in (0,1).\tag{1} \] The authors prove that there exists \(\alpha_{0} = 1.344\dots\) such that for \(0 < \alpha < \alpha_{0}\), the Navier boundary value problem \((1)\) with the boundary condition \[ u(0) = u(1)=0, \quad \kappa(0) = \kappa(1) = - \alpha \] has precisely two smooth (graph) solutions \(u\) in the class of smooth functions that are symmetric around \(x = \frac{1}{2}\). They also show that for every \(\beta \in {\mathbb R}\), the Dirichlet boundary value problem \((1)\) with the boundary condition \[ u(0) = u(1) = 0, \quad u'(0) = -u'(1) = \beta \] has precisely one smooth (graph) solution \(u\) in the class of smooth functions that are symmetric around \(x = \frac{1}{2}\). The authors also study nonsymmetric boundary value problems with both Navier and Dirichlet boundary conditions.