The Christoffel problem in the hyperbolic plane (Q6170333)

In this paper, the authors investigate the following nonlinear ODE \[ \varphi \left(\varphi_{\theta\theta}-\frac{\varphi^2_\theta}{2\varphi}+\frac{\varphi-\varphi^{-1}}{2}\right)= f(\theta ), \quad \theta \in [0, 2\pi ), \tag{1.1} \] where \(f\) is a given \(2\pi\)-periodic \(C^2\)-function and is not necessarily positive. The athors obtain some existence result of equation (1.1) that is based on a variational method. They consider the functional: \[ I(\varphi )=\int\limits^{2\pi}_0 \frac{1 + 2f(\theta )}{ \varphi}\, d\theta \cdot \int\limits^{2\pi}_0 \left(\varphi- \frac{\varphi^2_\theta}{\varphi} \right) \,d\theta. \tag{1.8} \] whose critical points correspond to solutions of equation (1.1). In order to estimate the upper bound of \(I(\varphi )\), the authors make use of a generalized Blaschke-Santaló inequality without the convexity assumption. As a result, the authors prove the existence of solutions under some periodic assumption and an integral condition. One of their main results is the following. Theorem 1.1. Assume that \(f\) is a \(\frac{2\pi}{k}\)-periodic \(C^2\)-function for some integer \(k > 1\). If \[ \int\limits^{2\pi}_0 f(\theta )\,d\theta > -\pi. \tag{1.9} \] Then equation (1.1) has a positive \(\frac{2\pi}{k}\)-periodic solution. In particular, when \(k = 2\) they obtain the following corollary. Corollary 1.2. Assume that \(f\) is a positive \(\pi\)-periodic \(C^2\)-function. Then equation (1.1) has a positive \(\pi\)-periodic solution. Furthermore, the authors apply the transformation \(\varphi (\theta ) = u^2(\tau )\) with \(\theta = 2\tau\), which connects equation (1.1) and the equation of the centro-affine Minkowski problem in \(\mathbb{R}^2\) as follows \[ u_{\tau\tau} + u = \frac{g(\tau)}{u^3}, \quad g(\tau)= 2f(2\tau)+1. \tag{1.10} \] Then some existence results of the centro-affine Minkowski problem can be used for equation (1.1), the authors obtain Theorem 1.4. Assume that \(f\) is a positive \(2\pi\)-periodic \(C^2\)-function. Suppose that at least one of the following conditions holds: \begin{itemize} \item[(i)] \(\overline{B}(\theta ) \not= 0\) at any critical point \(\theta\) of \(f\), and deg\((\overline{G}, \mathbb{S}^1) \not= -1\). \item[(ii)] \(\overline{B}(\theta ) > 0\) at any maximum point \(\theta\) of \(f\). \end{itemize} Here \(\overline{B}(\theta )\) and \(\overline{G}(\theta )\) are given by \[ \overline{B}(\theta ) =\int\limits^{2\pi}_0 \frac{f(\theta+s)-f(\theta)-f_\theta(\theta ) \sin s}{ \sin^2\frac{s}{2}}\,ds, \overline{G}(\theta ) =\left(-\overline{B}(\theta ), f_\theta (\theta )\right). \tag{1.11} \] Then equation (1.1) has a positive \(2\pi\)-periodic solution.