Geometric criteria for the existence of capillary surfaces in tubes (Q6536727)

The author proves some geometric criteria that yield existence of capillary surfaces in tubes \(\Omega \times \mathbb{R}\) in a gravity free environment, where \(\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^{2}\) is bounded, open, and simply connected. Up to the multiplicative factor of the surface tension, the energy of the system is \(\int_{\Omega }\sqrt{1+\left\vert \nabla u\right\vert ^{2}}dx-\cos(\gamma )\int_{\partial \Omega }ud\mathcal{H} ^{1}(x)+\int_{\Omega }\lambda udx\), where the first term is the surface energy, the second one the adhesion energy, \(\gamma \) being the contact angle measured inside the lower fluid between the phases and the cylinder, and the last one represents the volume constraint, \(\lambda \) being a Lagrange multiplier. Writing the Euler-Lagrange equation of the energy functional, smooth critical points need to satisfy : \(\operatorname{div}(Tu)=\lambda \), in \( \Omega \), \(Tu\cdot \nu _{\Omega }=\cos(\gamma )\), on \(\partial \Omega \), where \(Tu=\nabla u/\sqrt{1+\left\vert \nabla u\right\vert ^{2}}\), and \(\nu _{\Omega }\) the outward normal to \(\Omega \). Applying the Gauss-Green Theorem to this Euler-Lagrange equation and assuming \(\Omega \) to be Lipschitz, the author derives: \(-\int_{\partial \Omega }\frac{\nabla u\cdot \nu _{\Omega }}{\sqrt{1+\left\vert \nabla u\right\vert ^{2}}}d\mathcal{H} ^{1}(x)=\int_{\Omega }\operatorname{div}(Tu)dx=\lambda \int_{\Omega }1dx=\lambda \left\vert \Omega \right\vert \), which leads to the necessary condition to existence \( \lambda \leq \frac{P(\Omega )}{\left\vert \Omega \right\vert }\), where \( P(\Omega )\) denotes the distributional perimeter, which for Lipschitz sets \(E \) coincides with \(\mathcal{H}^{1}(\partial E)\). It is possible to refine this condition as \(\lambda =\cos(\gamma )\frac{P(\Omega )}{\left\vert \Omega \right\vert }\) and to perform the same reasoning on any proper Lipschitz subset \(E\) of \(\Omega \), leading to the necessary condition to existence \( \lambda <\frac{P(E;\Omega )+\cos(\gamma )P(E;\partial \Omega )}{\left\vert E\right\vert }\), where \(P(E;A)\) denotes the perimeter of \(E\) relative to the set \(A\). Considering the more general problem \(\operatorname{div}(Tu)=H\), in \(\Omega \), where \(H\) is a fixed positive constant, the author derives the necessary condition to existence \(H<\frac{P(E)}{\left\vert E\right\vert }\), for all proper subsets \(E\subset \Omega \) of locally finite perimeter. Given a bounded, open, and simply connected subset \(\Omega \) of \(\mathbb{R}^{2}\) satisfying \(P(\Omega )=\mathcal{H}^{1}(\partial \Omega )\) and the Poincaré-type inequality for all subsets \(E\subset \Omega \): \(\min\{P(E;\partial \Omega );P(\Omega \setminus E;\partial \Omega )\}\leq kP(E;\Omega)\), for some positive constant \(k\) depending only on \(\Omega \), and \(H\in \mathbb{R}\) fixed, the three assertions are equivalent: The inequality \(H< \frac{P(E)}{\left\vert E\right\vert }\) holds and \(H=\frac{P(\Omega )}{ \left\vert \Omega \right\vert }\); There exists a unique (up to translations) solution of \(\operatorname{div}(Tu)=H\), in \(\Omega \); There exists a solution \(u\) such that \(Tu\cdot \nu _{\Omega }=1\) a.e. on \(\partial \Omega \), i.e. that solves \( \operatorname{div}(Tu)=\lambda \), in \(\Omega \), \(Tu\cdot \nu _{\Omega }=\cos(\gamma )\), on \( \partial \Omega \), with \(\gamma =0\). The first criterion deals with convex sets.\ Let \(\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^{2}\) be a bounded, open, and convex set. Then the problem \(\operatorname{div}(Tu)=\lambda \), in \(\Omega \), \(Tu\cdot \nu _{\Omega }=\cos(\gamma )\), on \(\partial \Omega \) has a solution for \(\gamma =0 \) if and only if \(\overline{\kappa }=\mathrm{ess}\ \sup \ \kappa _{\partial \Omega }\leq \frac{P(\Omega )}{\left\vert \Omega \right\vert }\), where \(\kappa _{\partial \Omega }\) represents the curvature of \(\partial \Omega \). This is derived from the preceding result, the author observing that convexity implies Lipschitz continuity. Moving to the case of non convex piecewise Lipschitz sets, the author introduces the strict interior rolling ball condition of radius \(r\) and of absence of necks of radius \(r\). If \(\Omega \subset \mathbb{ R}^{2}\) is a bounded, piecewise Lipschitz, and simply connected set which enjoys the strict interior rolling ball condition for \(r=\frac{\left\vert \Omega \right\vert }{P(\Omega )}\), then the problem \(\operatorname{div}(Tu)=\lambda \), in \( \Omega \), \(Tu\cdot \nu _{\Omega }=\cos(\gamma )\), on \(\partial \Omega \), has a solution for \(\gamma =0\). If \(\Omega \) has no necks of radius \(r=\frac{ \left\vert \Omega \right\vert }{P(\Omega )}\), then the problem \( \operatorname{div}(Tu)=\lambda \), in \(\Omega \), \(Tu\cdot \nu _{\Omega }=\cos(\gamma )\), on \( \partial \Omega \), has a solution for \(\gamma =0\) if and only if \(\Omega \) enjoys the strict interior rolling ball condition for \(r=\frac{\left\vert \Omega \right\vert }{P(\Omega )}\). Finally, the author proves a criterion in the case of a Jordan set \(\Omega \).