The Douglas problem for parametric double integrals

DOI10.1007/S00229-002-0325-5MaRDI QIDQ1865664zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Heiko von der Mosel, Matthias Kurzke

Publication date 27 March 2003

Published in Manuscripta Mathematica (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1007/s00229-002-0325-5

Douglas problem isoperimetric inequality parametric integral

Methods involving semicontinuity and convergence; relaxation (49J45) Optimization of shapes other than minimal surfaces (49Q10) Higher-dimensional and -codimensional surfaces in Euclidean and related (n)-spaces (53A07) Minimal surfaces in differential geometry, surfaces with prescribed mean curvature (53A10)

Review text

The main result of this paper is the existence of multiply connected, conformally parametrized minimizers of genus zero for a parametric semi-elliptic double integral spanned by a given system of Jordan curves. Consider parametric functionals \({\mathcal F}\) of the form \({\mathcal F}_ B(X):=\int_ B F(X, X_ u\wedge X_ v) dudv\), where \(F \in C^ 0({\mathbb R}^ n\times{\mathbb R}^ N)\), \(n\geq 2\), \(N=n(n-1)/2\), \(B\) is a domain in \({\mathbb R}^ 2\), and \(X \in H^{1,2}(B, {\mathbb R}^ n)\cap C^ 0(\partial B, {\mathbb R}^ n)\). It is assumed that \(F\) satisfies the homogeneity condition and \(F\) is positive definite (there exist positive constants \(m_ 1\), \(m_ 2\) such that \(m_ 1| z| \leq F(x, z)\leq m_ 2| z| \) holds for all \((x, z)\in {\mathbb R}^ n\times {\mathbb R}^ N\)). Let \(\Gamma:=\langle\Gamma^ 1, \Gamma^ 2, ..., \Gamma^ k\rangle\) be a system of finitely many disjoint rectifiable closed Jordan curves in \({\mathbb R}^ n\). It is said that \(\Gamma\) satisfies the Douglas condition for \({\mathcal F}\) if and only if \(d(\Gamma)<d^{\dagger}(\Gamma)\) holds. Here, \(d(\Gamma)\) is the infimum of \({\mathcal F}_ B(X)\) among all discs \(B\) with \(k-1\) discs removed and all \(X \in H^{1,2}(B, {\mathbb R}^ n)\cap C^ 0(\partial B, {\mathbb R}^ n)\) which map \(\partial B\) onto \(\Gamma\) weakly monotonically, and \(d^{\dagger}(\Gamma)\) is the infimum of \({\mathcal F}_ B(X)\) among all disconnected compact planer regions \(B\) with \(k\) boundary components and all \(X \in H^{1,2}(B, {\mathbb R}^ n)\cap C^ 0(\partial B, {\mathbb R}^ n)\) which map \(\partial B\) onto \(\Gamma\) weakly monotonically. Under the assumption that \(F\) is semi-elliptic and \(\Gamma\) satisfies a chord-arc condition and \(F\) satisfies the Douglas condition for \({\mathcal F}\), it is proved that there exists a pair \((B, X)\) which attains \(d(\Gamma)\), and \(X\) is conformally parametrized. The main method of the proof is the Courant's classical approach for minimal surfaces described in \textit{R. Courant} [Dirichlet's principle, conformal mapping, and minimal surfaces (Interscience Publishers, New York)(1950; Zbl 0040.34603)] with the method of conformal approximation of parametric functionals which was introduced in \textit{S. Hildebrandt and H. von der Mosel} [Calc. Var. 9, 249-267 (1999; Zbl 0934.49022)]. As a by-product of the existence proof, the following isoperimetric inequality is obtained: For any pair \((B, X)\) which attains \(d(\Gamma)\), it holds that \({\mathcal A}_ B(X)\leq (m_ 2/(4\pi m_ 1))\sum_{l=1}^ k (L(\Gamma^ l))^ 2\), where \({\mathcal A}_ B(X)\) is the area functional and \(L(\Gamma^ l)\) is the length of \(\Gamma^ l\). Moreover, a regularity result is given: If \(\Gamma\) satisfies the chord-arc condition, then, for every conformally parametrized minimizer \((B, X)\) of \({\mathcal F}\), \(X\) is of class \(C^{0,\alpha}(\overline{B},{\mathbb R}^ n)\cap H_{\text{ loc}}^{1,q}(B,{\mathbb R}^ n)\) for some \(\alpha\in(0,1/2]\) and \(q>2\). This result follows from corresponding result for the Plateau problem proved in \textit{S. Hildebrandt and H. von der Mosel} [op. cit.].

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