Weak Laplacian bounds and minimal boundaries in non-smooth spaces with Ricci curvature lower bounds (Q6947014)

In this book, the authors initiate a regularity theory for boundaries of sets (locally) minimizing the perimeter, inside an ambient space that is a non-collapsed \(\mathsf{RCD}(K,N)\) space. The class of \(\mathsf{RCD}(K,N)\) metric measure spaces is a generalization of the class of Riemannian manifolds with Ricci curvature bounded from below by \(K\in \mathbb{R}\) and dimension bounded from above by \(N\in[1,\infty)\), and it includes measured Gromov-Hausdorff limits of such smooth manifolds and finite-dimensional Alexandrov spaces. These spaces are non-collapsed when the reference measure is the \(N\)-dimensional Hausdorff measure.\N\NThe regularity results in the paper include an \(\epsilon\)-regularity theorem in the spirit of De Giorgi's regularity theory for Euclidean minimal boundaries, a sharp Hausdorff dimension estimate of the singular set and a \(C^{0,\alpha}\)-regularity result away from the singular set.\N\NThe regularity results are partially based on the following sharp Laplacian comparison estimate: for every locally perimeter minimizing set \(E\) it holds\N\[\N\Delta \mathsf{d}_{\overline{E}}\le \mathrm{t}_{K,N}\circ\mathsf{d}_{\overline{E}}\N\]\Nwhere \(\mathsf{d}_{\overline{E}}\) is the distance function from \(\overline{E}\), and \(\mathrm{t}_{K,N}\) is an appropriate comparison function. This estimate corresponds to a global and non-smooth counterpart of the smooth fact that the mean curvature vanishes for sets locally minimizing the perimeter.\N\NTo give a meaning and prove the estimate above, the authors develop an intrinsic theory of Laplacian bounds in viscosity sense and in a pointwise, heat flow related sense, showing their equivalence also with Laplacian bounds in distributional sense (see Section 3 for precise definitions). Moreover, they establish a precise relation between (synthetic) lower Ricci curvature bounds and the preservation of Laplacian lower bounds under the evolution via the \(p\)-Hopf-Lax semigroup, for general exponents \(p\in [1,\infty)\).\N\NSome of the results in the paper have been subsequently extended to the class of (possibly collapsed) \(\mathsf{RCD}(K,N)\) spaces, and, thanks to the compactness and stability of the \(\mathsf{RCD}\) condition, used to obtain applications in the study of isoperimetric problems and minimal graphs over smooth noncompact manifolds.