A note on the stability and uniqueness for solutions to the minimal surface system (Q932932)

This paper deals with non-parametric minimal submanifolds in Euclidean space. Namely, given a bounded domain \(\Omega\subset \mathbb R^n\), a \(C^2\) vector-valued function \(f:\Omega\to \mathbb R^m\) is said to be a solution to the minimal surface system (MSS) if \[ \sum_{i,j=1}^n\frac{\partial}{\partial x^i}\left( \sqrt{g} g^{ij}\frac{\partial f^\alpha}{\partial x^j}\right) = 0, \quad \alpha=1, \dots , m, \] where \(g_{ij} = \delta_{ij}+\sum_\alpha\frac{\partial f^\alpha}{\partial x^i} \frac{\partial f^\alpha}{\partial x^j}\), \(g=\det(g_{ij})\). The graph of \(f\) in \(\mathbb R^{m+n}\) is called a non-parametric minimal submanifold. The authors discuss the uniqueness and stability of solutions of the Dirichlet problem for MSS [\textit{H. B. Lawson} and \textit{R. Osserman}, Acta Math. 139, 1--17 (1977; Zbl 0376.49016)]. It turns out that both uniqueness and stability hold if one assumes that \(f\) is distance decreasing (strictly distance decreasing), i.e., if \(| df (v)| \leq | v|\) (or \(| df (v)| < | v|\)) at each point of \(\Omega\) for any nonzero vector \(v\in \mathbb R^n\). The main results are the following: Theorem 1. Suppose a non-parametric minimal submanifold \(\Sigma^m\subset \mathbb R^{m+n}\) is the graph of a distance decreasing map \(f:\Omega\subset \mathbb R^m\to \mathbb R^n\). Then \(\Sigma^m\) is stable. It is strictly stable, if \(f\) is strictly distance decreasing. Theorem 2. Suppose that \(\Sigma^m_1, \Sigma^m_2 \subset \mathbb R^{m+n}\) are non-parametric minimal submanifolds, which are the graphs of \(f_1:\Omega\subset \mathbb R^m\to \mathbb R^n\) and \(f_2:\Omega\subset \mathbb R^m\to \mathbb R^n\), respectively. If both \(f_1\) and \(f_2\) are distance decreasing and \(f_1=f_2\) on \(\partial\Omega\), then \(\Sigma^m_1=\Sigma^m_2\).