Positive disks with prescribed mean curvature on the boundary (Q700509)

This article concerns the closed unit disk \(D\) in the complex plane endowed with a metric \(g\) of curvature \(K>0.\) The general question considered is under which condition there exists an isometric immersion \(r\) from \((D,g)\) into Euclidean 3-space \(R^3\) with prescribed positive mean curvature \(h\) on the boundary of \(D\). To answer this, the author adds the following condition \(S\): There exists an isometric immersion \(r_0\) from \(D\) to \(R^3\) (with no boundary condition on its mean curvature \(H_0\)). Then the author proves that \(r\) exists if \((h/\sqrt{K})-1\) is greater than the maximum of \(4 ((H_0/\sqrt{K})-1)\) on the boundary of \(D\). Furthermore, he classifies all these solutions \(r\) in terms of points where \(r\) and \(r_0\) have the same principal curvature directions. Also, sufficient conditions are given for \(r\) to be convex. A corollary of this result is that if \(K\) is constant and \(h >\sqrt{K}\), then \(r\) exists (here the condition \(S\) is no longer required). The author concludes with a nonexistence result: if \(r_0\) is radially symmetric and \(H_0(1) > h \geq \sqrt{K(1)}\), then no \(C^2\)-solution \(r\) exists.