Boundary behavior of nonlocal minimal surfaces (Q504635)

The classical minimal surfaces do not stick at the boundary, that is, if \(\Omega\) is a convex domain and \(E\) is a set that minimizes the perimeter in \(\Omega\), then \(\partial E\) is transverse to \(\partial\Omega\) at their intersection points. The situation for the nonlocal minimal surfaces is completely different, and nonlocal interactions can favor stickiness at the boundary for minimizers of a fractional perimeter. If \(s\in (0,1/2)\) and \(\Omega\subset \mathbb R^n\) is an open set, then the \(s\)-perimeter of a set \(E\subset\mathbb R^n\) in \(\Omega\) is defined as \(\mathrm{Per}_s(E,\Omega)=L(E\cap\Omega,E^C)+L(\Omega\setminus E,E\setminus \Omega)\), where \[ L(F,G)=\iint\limits_{F\times G} \frac{dxdy}{|x-y|^{n+2s}}. \] If \(\mathrm{Per}_s(E,\Omega)<\infty\) and \(\mathrm{Per}_s(E,\Omega)\leq\mathrm{Per}_s(F,\Omega)\) among all the sets \(F\) which coincide with \(E\) outside \(\Omega\), then \(E\) is said to be \(s\)-minimal in \(\Omega\). In this paper, the authors consider the behavior of the nonlocal minimal surfaces in the vicinity of the boundary. They show stickiness phenomena to half-balls when the datum outside the ball is a small half-ring and to the side of a two-dimensional box when the oscillation between the datum on the right and on the left is large enough. When the fractional parameter is small, the sticking effects may become more and more evident. First, the authors show that if a nonlocal minimal surface sticks to a half-ball, and for any \(\delta>0\), \(K_\delta=(B_{1+\delta}\setminus B_1)\cap\{x_n<0\}\), and \(E_\delta\) is the set minimizing \(\mathrm{Per}_s(E,B_1)\) among all the sets \(E\) such that \(E\setminus B_1=K_\delta\), then there exists \(\delta_0>0\), depending on \(s\) and \(n\), such that \(E_\delta=K_\delta\) for any \(\delta\in(0,\delta_0]\). Next, if \(E_M\) is the \(s\)-minimal set in \((-1,1)\times\mathbb R\) with datum outside \((-1,1)\times\mathbb R\) given by the jump \(J_M=J_M^-\cup J_M^+\), where \(J_M^-=(-\infty,-1]\times(-\infty,-M)\) and \(J_M^+=[1,\infty)\times(-\infty,M)\) and \(M>1\), then \(E_M\) sticks at the boundary of a box and there exist \(M_0>0\) and \(C_0\geq C'_0>0\), depending on s, such that \[ \begin{cases} [-1,1)\times\left[C_0M^{\frac{1+2s}{2+2s}},M\right]\subset E_M^C \\ (-1,1]\times\left[-M,-C'_0M^{\frac{1+2s}{2+2s}}\right]\subset E_M \end{cases} \] for \(M\geq M_0\), and the exponent \(\frac{1+2s}{2+2s}\) is optimal. Also, the authors show that as \(s\to 0^+\) the \(s\)-minimal set in \(B_1\) with datum \(\Sigma=\mathbb R^2\setminus B_1\) with \(x>0\), \(y>0\) sticks to \(\Sigma\), and if \(E_s\) is the \(s\)-minimizer of \(\mathrm{Per}_s(E,B_1)\) among all the sets \(E\) such that \(E\setminus B_1=\Sigma\), then there exists \(s_0> 0\) such that \(E_s=\Sigma\) for any \(s\in(0,s_0]\). Finally, the authors show that lines in the plane are unstable at the boundary, that is, small compactly supported perturbations of lines cause the minimizers in a slab to stick at the boundary, by a quantity that is proportional to a power of the perturbation. They show that if for arbitrary small \(\varepsilon>0\) there exists \(\delta_0>0\) such that \(\delta\in(0,\delta_0]\), \(F\supset H\cup F_-\cup F_+\), where \(H=\mathbb R\times(-\infty,0)\), \(F_-=(-3,-2)\times[0,\delta)\), \(F_+=(2,3)\times[0,\delta)\), and \(E\) is the \(s\)-minimal set in \((-1,1)\times\mathbb R\) among all the sets that coincide with \(F\) outside \((-1,1)\times\mathbb R\), then \(E\supset(-1,1)\times\left(-\infty,\delta^{\frac{2+\varepsilon}{1-2s}}\right]\).