Poincaré inequality on minimal graphs over manifolds and applications (Q7006533)

The author studies Sobolev inequalities and Neumann-Poincaré inequalities on minimal graphs defined over smooth geodesic balls whose Ricci curvature is bounded from below.\N\NLet us state the main result of the article, Theorem 1.1. Given any \(n\in\mathbb{N}\), \(\kappa\geq 0\) and \(v>0\), there exists a constant \(\Theta=\Theta(n,\kappa,v)\geq 1\) satisfying the following properties. Assume that:\N\begin{itemize}\N\item \((\Sigma,g)\) is a smooth \(n\)-dimensional complete non-compact Riemannian manifold such that\N\[\N\mathrm{Ric}\geq-(n-1)\kappa^2g\;\text{ on }B_2(p),\qquad\mathcal{H}^n(B_1(p))\geq v\N\]\Nfor some point \(p\in\Sigma\), where \(\mathrm{Ric}\) denotes the Ricci curvature tensor of \((\Sigma,g)\) and \(\mathcal{H}^n\) is the \(n\)-dimensional Hausdorff measure.\N\item \(M\) is a minimal graph over \(B_2(p)\), meaning that \(M=\{(x,u(x))\in\Sigma\times\mathbb{R}:x\in B_2(p)\}\) for some smooth solution \(u:B_2(p)\to\mathbb{R}\) to the minimal hypersurface equation\N\[\N\mathrm{div}_\Sigma\bigg(\frac{Du}{\sqrt{1+|Du|^2}}\bigg)=0\quad\text{ on }B_2(p).\N\]\N\end{itemize}\NDenote by \(\nabla\) the Levi-Civita connection with respect to the induced metric on \(M\). Then:\N\begin{itemize}\N\item Sobolev inequality. It holds that\N\[\N\bigg(\int_M|\phi|^{\frac{n}{n-1}}\bigg)^{\frac{n-1}{n}}\leq\Theta\int_M|\nabla\phi|\quad\text{ for every }\phi\in C^1_0(M\cap B_1(\bar p)),\N\]\Nwhere we set \(\bar p:=(p,0)\in M\).\N\item Neumann-Poincaré inequality. It holds that\N\[\N\int_{M\cap B_{1/\Theta}(\bar p)}\bigg|\varphi-\frac{1}{\mathcal{H}^n(M\cap B_{1/\Theta}(\bar p))}\int_{M\cap B_{1/\Theta}(\bar p)}\varphi\bigg| \leq\Theta\int_{M\cap B_1(\bar p)}|\nabla\varphi|\N\]\Nfor every \(\varphi\in C^1(M\cap B_1(\bar p))\).\N\end{itemize}\N\NThe above result is first obtained for area-minimizing hypersurfaces in `almost Euclidean' spaces, i.e.\ in complete Riemannian manifolds with almost non-negative Ricci curvature and whose large balls are close to Euclidean balls in the Gromov-Hausdorff sense. The general statement is then deduced by using techniques and tools from the Cheeger-Colding theory and from the theory of currents in geometric measure theory.\N\NSome applications of Theorem 1.1 are presented as well, among which:\N\begin{itemize}\N\item Theorem 1.3 (interior gradient estimates). Letting \((\Sigma,g)\) and \(u\) be as above, it holds that\N\[\N|Du(p)|\leq c_{n,\kappa,v}\exp\bigg(c_{n,\kappa,v}\bigg(u(p)-\sup_{x\in B_1(p)}u(x)\bigg)\bigg),\N\]\Nfor some constant \(c_{n,\kappa,v}>0\) depending only on \(n\), \(\kappa\) and \(v\).\N\item Theorem 1.4 (Liouville-type theorem). Let \((\Sigma,g)\) be a complete non-compact Riemannian manifold with \(\mathrm{Ric}\geq 0\) and Euclidean volume growth. Let \(u:\Sigma\to\mathbb{R}\) be a smooth solution to the minimal surface equation whose negative part admits sub-linear growth, meaning that\N\[\N\limsup_{\Sigma\ni x\to\infty}\frac{\max\{-u(x),0\}}{d_g(x,p)}=0\quad\text{ for some }p\in\Sigma.\N\]\NThen the function \(u\) is constant.\N\end{itemize}