Boundary rigidity and filling volume minimality of metrics close to a flat one (Q974063)

Let \((M,g)\) be a compact Riemannian manifold with boundary \(\partial M\). The restriction of the Riemannian distance \(d_ g\) to \(\partial M\times\partial M\) is the boundary distance function. \((M,g)\) is called boundary rigid if every compact Riemannian manifold \((\widetilde M,\widetilde g)\) with the same boundary and the same boundary distance function is isometric to \((M,g)\) via a boundary-preserving isometry. A compact orientable Riemannian manifold \((M,g)\) is said to be a minimal orientable filling if, for every compact Riemannian manifold \((\widetilde M,\widetilde g)\) with \(\partial M=\partial\widetilde M\), the inequality \(d_{\tilde g}(x,y)\geq d_ g(x,y)\), \(x,y\in\partial M\) implies \(\text{vol}(\widetilde M,\widetilde g)\geq \text{vol}(M,g)\). In this paper, the authors show that, if \(M\subset \mathbb R^ n\) is a compact region with a smooth boundary, then there exists a \(C^ 2\)-neighborhood \(U\) of the Euclidean metric \(g_ e\) on \(M\) such that, every \(g\in U\) is a minimal orientable filling and boundary rigid. Also, it is shown that, if \(\text{vol}(\widetilde M,\widetilde g)=\text{vol}(M,g)\) and \(d_{\tilde g}=d_{g}\) on \(\partial M\), then \((M,g)\) is isomorphic to \((\widetilde M,\widetilde g)\).