Minimizers of anisotropic perimeters with cylindrical norms (Q523855)

For open sets \(\Omega\subset\mathbb R^{n+1}\) and \(\widehat\Omega\subset\mathbb R^n\), the space of functions with bounded variation in \(\Omega\) is denoted by \(BV(\Omega)\) and the space of functions with locally bounded variation is \(BV_{\roman{loc}}(\Omega)\). If \(\chi_E\) is the characteristic function of the measurable set \(E\subset\Omega\), then \(E\in BV(\Omega)\), respectively \(BV_{\roman{loc}}(\Omega)\), means that \(\chi_E\in BV(\Omega)\), respectively \(BV_{\roman{loc}}(\Omega)\). The Euclidean perimeter of the set \(E\) in the open set \(A\) is denoted by \(P(E,A)\). The outward generalized unit normal to the reduced boundary \(\partial^*E\) of \(E\in BV_{\roman{loc}}(\Omega)\) is denoted by \(\nu_E\). For the splitting \(\mathbb R^{n+1}=\{(x,t):\, x\in\mathbb R^n, t\in\mathbb R\}\) the normal \(\nu_E\) is expressed as \(\nu_E=(\widehat\nu_E,(\nu_E)_t)\). The set \(\mathcal{A}_c(\Omega)\) is the set of all open relatively compact subsets of \(\Omega\). A convex function \(\Phi:\mathbb R^n\to[0,\infty)\) is a norm on \(\mathbb R^n\) if it satisfies \(\Phi(\lambda\xi)=|\lambda|\Phi(\xi)\), and if there is a constant \(c>0\) such that \(c|\xi|\leq\Phi(\xi)\). Its dual norm is \(\Phi^0:(\mathbb R^n)^*\to[0,\infty)\). The norm \(\Phi:\mathbb R^{n+1}\to[0,\infty)\) is called cylindrical over a norm \(\varphi:\mathbb R^n\to[0,\infty)\) if \(\Phi(\widehat\xi,\xi_{n+1})=\max\{\varphi(\widehat\xi),|\xi_{n+1}|\}\), and is called conical if \(\Phi(\xi)=\varphi(\widehat\xi)+|\xi_{n+1}|\). If \(\Phi\) is cylindrical over \(\varphi\) then \(\Phi^0\) is conical and vice-versa. If \(O\subset\mathbb R^m\) is an open set and \(\Phi:\mathbb R^m\to[0,\infty)\) is a norm, called anisotropy, then for any \(E\in BV_{\roman{loc}}(O)\) and for any \(A\in\mathcal{A}_c(O)\), the anisotropic \(\Phi\)-perimeter of \(E\) in \(A\) is defined as \(P_\Phi(E,A)=\int_{A\cap\partial^*E}\Phi^0(\nu_E)\,d\mathcal{H}^{m-1}\), and the related area-type functional \(\mathcal{G}_{\Phi^0}\) is defined as \(\mathcal{G}_{\Phi^0}(v,\widehat\Omega)=\int_{\widehat\Omega}\Phi^0(-Dv,1)\), where \(\mathcal{H}^{n}\) is \(n\)-dimensional Hausdorff measure in \(\mathbb R^{n+1}\) and \(Dv\) is the distributional derivative of \(v\). It is said that \(E\in BV_{\roman{loc}}(O)\) is a minimizer of \(P_\Phi\) by compact perturbations in \(O\) if \(P_\Phi(E,A)\leq P_\Phi(F,A)\) for any \(A\in\mathcal{A}_c(O)\) and \(F\in BV_{\roman{loc}}(O)\) such that the measure of the symmetric difference between \(E\) and \(F\) satisfies \(E\Delta F\subset\subset A\). A minimizer \(E\subset\Omega=\widehat\Omega\times\mathbb R\) of a norm \(\Phi\) on \(\mathbb R^{n+1}\) is called cylindrical over \(\widehat E\) if \(E=\widehat E\times\mathbb R\), where \(\widehat E\subset\widehat\Omega\). The boundary of the unit ball \(B_\Phi\) of the norm \(\Phi\) is called a generalized graph in the vertical direction if \(\Phi(\widehat\xi,\xi_{n+1})\geq\Phi(\widehat\xi,0)\). A minimizer \(E\subset\Omega=\widehat\Omega\times\mathbb R\) of a norm \(\Phi\) on \(\mathbb R^{n+1}\) is called Cartesian minimizer if \(E=\roman{sg}(u)\) for some function \(u:\widehat\Omega\to\mathbb R\). The norm \(\Phi:\mathbb R^{n+1}\to[0,\infty)\) is called partially monotone if \(\Phi(\widehat\xi,0)\leq\Phi(\widehat\eta,0)\;\wedge\;\Phi(0,\xi_{n+1})\leq\Phi(0,\eta_{n+1})\;\Longrightarrow\;\Phi(\xi)\leq\Phi(\eta)\) for \(\xi=(\widehat\xi,\xi_{n+1})\) and \(\eta\in\mathbb R^{n+1}\). In this paper, the authors study various regularity properties of minimizers of the \(\Phi\)-perimeter, where \(\Phi\) is a norm. They show that for a norm \(\Phi:\mathbb R^{n+1}\to[0,\infty)\) and \(u\in BV_{\roman{loc}}(\widehat\Omega)\), if \(\roman{sg}(u)\) is a minimizer of \(P_\Phi\) in \(\widehat\Omega\times\mathbb R\), then \(u\) is a minimizer of \(\mathcal{G}_{\Phi^0}\) in \(\widehat\Omega\), and if \(\Phi\) is partially monotone and \(u\) is a minimizer of \(\mathcal{G}_{\Phi^0}\) in \(\widehat\Omega\), then \(\roman{sg}(u)\) is a minimizer of \(P_\Phi\) in \(\Omega=\widehat\Omega\times\mathbb R\). Next, it is shown that if \(\Phi:\mathbb R^{n+1}\to[0,\infty)\) is cylindrical over \(\varphi\), \(u\) is a minimizer of \(\mathcal{G}_{\Phi^0}\) in \(\mathbb R^n\), and either \(1\leq n\leq 7\) and \(\varphi\) is Euclidean or \(n=2\) and \(\varphi^0\) is strictly convex, then there exists \(\zeta\in\mathbb S^{n-1}\) and a monotone function \(f:\mathbb R\to\mathbb R\) such that \(u(x)=f(x\cdot\zeta)\). Finally, the authors prove that if \(\Phi:\mathbb R^{n+1}\to[0,\infty)\) is cylindrical over \(\varphi\) such that \(\varphi^2\in C^3(\mathbb R^n)\) is uniformly convex and \(u\) is a minimizer of \(\mathcal{G}_{\Phi^0}\) in \(\widehat\Omega\), then \(\partial\roman{sg}(u)\setminus\Sigma(u)\) is locally Lipschitz, where \(\Sigma(u)\subset\partial\roman{sg}(u)\) is a closed set of Hausdorff dimension at most \(n-2\) if \(n>3\), and \(\Sigma(u)=\varnothing\) if \(n=2,3\).