Weak uniqueness and partial regularity for the composite membrane problem (Q936153)

The paper deals with the physical problem to build a body of prescribed shape out of given materials of varying density in such a way that the body will have prescribed mass and the basic frequency (with fixed boundary) as small as possible. Mathematically the problem is formulated in a variational and differential forms. Namely, the composite membrane problem in all dimensions is studied. It is proved that minimizing solutions exhibit a weak uniqueness property which under certain conditions can be turned into a full uniqueness result. The partial regularity of the solutions to the Euler-Lagrange equation associated to the composite problem and the regularity of the free boundary for the solutions to the Euler-Lagrange equations are studied as well.