On almost stable linear Weingarten hypersurfaces (Q6143511)

The stability of hypersurfaces for volume-preserving variational problems has a long history since the first result for the stability of constant mean curvature in Euclidean space, see [\textit{J. L. Barbosa} and \textit{M. P. do Carmo}, Math. Z. 185, 339--353 (1984; Zbl 0513.53002)]. Recently, \textit{M. A. Velásquez} et al. [J. Math. Anal. Appl. 406, No. 1, 134--146 (2013; Zbl 1309.53050)] defined the notion of \((r, s)\)-stability which arises from the second-order variational problems for some generalized linear Weingarten hypersurfaces and it is the analogue of what is called the usual stability for the constant mean curvature hypersurfaces or the \(r\)-stability for constant higher order mean curvature hypersurfaces. They proved that the only closed \((r, s)\)-stable hypersurfaces in the sphere or the hyperbolic space are geodesic hyperspheres. This result was later extended for hypersurfaces of the Euclidean space by \textit{J. F. da Silva} et al. in [Monatsh. Math. 179, No. 2, 293--303 (2016; Zbl 1345.53066)]. In the present paper, the authors prove that the above cited results can be improved with a weaker assumption, called almost \((r, s, F )\)-stability.