The double bubble problem on the cone (Q851546)

The Double Bubble Problem asks for the least-area way to enclose and separate two given volumes in \(\mathbb R^n.\) This is a generalization of the classical isoperimetric problem, which asks for the case of one given volume. The Double Bubble Conjecture in \(\mathbb R^3\) says that ``the standard double bubble consisting of three spherical caps meeting at 120 degrees is the solution of the Double Bubble Problem''. In 1991, Joel Foisy first stated the conjecture in his undergraduate thesis at Williams College. In 1995, Joel Hass, Michael Hutchings, and Roger Schlafly proved the Double Bubble Conjecture for equal volumes in \(\mathbb R^3\) and finally, in 2000, Hutchings, Morgan, Ritore, and Ros announced a proof of the Double Bubble Conjecture for arbitrary volumes in \(\mathbb R^3.\) After that, the result was generalized from \(\mathbb R^3\) to \(\mathbb R^4\) by a Williams undergraduate research Geometry Group. For the 2-dimension version, the 1990 Williams College NSF ``SMALL'' undergraduate research Geometry Group, including Joel Foisy, proved the Double Bubble Conjecture in \(\mathbb R^2\) and later, others solved the problem on other surfaces such as the sphere \(S^2\) and the torus \(T^2.\) The problem remains open on many surfaces. For more details about the Double Bubble Conjecture, see \textit{F. Morgan}'s ``Geometric Measure Theory'', chapter 14 and references therein [Academic Press, San Diego (2000; Zbl 0974.49025)]. In this paper, the authors solve the Double Bubble Problem on a cone that can be viewed as a planar wedge with angle less than \(2\pi\) and sides identified. The main result states that ``on a cone, the solution of the Double Bubble Problem is either two concentric circles or a circle lens''. Section 2 contains some definitions. Section 3 provides some basic existence and regularity properties. Section 4 characterizes the boundary components of a minimizing double bubble. The results in this section show three possibilities for the solution: two concentric circles about the vertex; one circle with an embedded lens or two concentric circles with a lens. The last case is rejected by a lemma in section 5. Section 6 states the main result and a similar result for a planar wedge. Section 7 contains some formulas for the phase diagram and information on the location of the smaller region. The last section shows how the type of minimizing double bubble varies when one area and the cone angle change (the remaining area is assumed to be one) based on \texttt{Mathematica plot}.