An optimal design problem for a charge qubit (Q6939422)

The authors introduce a Hartree-type shape optimization model for the ground state of a superconducting charge qubit: minimize \(E_q(\Omega)\) over sets \(\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^3\) of fixed volume, where \(E_q\) couples the Dirichlet energy with a Coulombic repulsion of strength \(q>0\).\N\NFor \(q\) small, optimal shapes exist and are \(C^{2,\alpha}\)-nearly spherical (Thm.~1.2); the proof proceeds via a penalized free-boundary formulation, uniform Lipschitz and nondegeneracy estimates, quantitative Faber-Krahn closeness to balls, and improvement-of-flatness to obtain \(C^{2,\alpha}\) regularity. A surgery argument removes an a priori equiboundedness constraint, yielding genuine existence and regularity for unconstrained positioning under the volume constraint.\N\NIn contrast, for \(q\) large the ball is not optimal since any minimizer must have diameter at least \(q^{1/2}\) (Thm.~1.5); the energy heuristically favors widely separated multi-component configurations (nonexistence is conjectured).