The area minimizing problem in conformal cones. I

DOI10.1016/J.JFA.2020.108827MaRDI QIDQ2215830zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Publication date 14 December 2020

Published in Journal of Functional Analysis (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.09183

bounded variation function conformal cones minimal graphs the area minimizing problem

Existence problems for PDEs: global existence, local existence, non-existence (35A01) Boundary value problems for second-order elliptic equations (35J25) Variational problems in a geometric measure-theoretic setting (49Q20) Minimal surfaces in differential geometry, surfaces with prescribed mean curvature (53A10)

Abstract: In this paper we continue to study the connection among the area minimizing problem, certain area functional and the Dirichlet problem of minimal surface equations in a class of conformal cones with a similar motivation from cite{GZ20}. These cones are certain generalizations of hyperbolic spaces. We describe the structure of area minimizing

n

-nteger multiplicity currents in bounded

C^{2}

conformal cones with prescribed

C^{1}

graphical boundary via a minimizing problem of these area functionals. As an application we solve the corresponding Dirichlet problem of minimal surface equations under a mean convex type assumption. We also extend the existence and uniqueness of a local area minimizing integer multiplicity current with star-shaped infinity boundary in hyperbolic spaces into a large class of complete conformal manifolds.

Review text

If \(M\) is a \(m\)-dimensional complete Riemannian manifold with a metric \(g\), and \(S\) is a \(C^2\) hypersurface in \(M\) with a normal vector \(\vec v\), then \(H_S=\text{div}\vec{v}\) is called the mean curvature of \(S\) with respect to \(\vec{v}\). If \(H_S\equiv 0\), then \(S\) is called minimal. If \(\partial\Omega\) is the boundary of a \(C^2\) domain \(\Omega\) in \(M\), then its outward normal vector is always taken outward. With this convention the mean curvature of the unit sphere \(S^n\) in Euclidean spaces \(\mathbb{R}^{n+1}\) is \(n\). If \(H_{\partial\Omega}\ge 0\), then \(\Omega\) is called a mean convex domain. If \(\Omega\) is an open bounded Riemannian manifold with \(C^2\) boundary and metric \(\sigma\), \(I=(-\infty,A)\) is an open interval, where \(A\) is a constant or \(\infty\), and \(\varphi(r)\) is a \(C^2\) positive function on \(I\), then \(Q_\varphi=(\Omega\times I,\varphi^2(r)(\sigma+dr^2))\) is said to be a conformal cone. If \(\Omega\) is a mean convex, then \(Q_\varphi\) is called a mean convex conformal cone. If \(\Omega\) is a \(n\)-dimensional Riemannian manifold with \(C^2\) boundary, then \(\Omega\) is said to have the non-closed-minimal property if (i) no closed embedded minimal hypersurface exists in \(\overline\Omega\) for \(n\le 7\) and (ii) no closed embedded minimal hypersurface with a closed singular set \(S\) with \(H^k(S)=0\), for any real number \(k>n-7\), exists in \(\overline\Omega\), where \(H^k\) denotes the \(k\)-dimensional Hausdorff measure on \(\Omega\). The Dirichlet problem is defined as \(\text{div}\!\left(\frac{D u}{\sqrt{1+|Du|^2}}\right)=\frac{n\varphi'(u(x))}{\varphi(u(x))\sqrt{1+|Du|^2}}\) for \(x\in\Omega\), and \(u(x)=\psi(x)\) for \(x\in\partial\Omega\), where \(\psi(x)\) is a continuous function on \(\partial\Omega\) and div is the divergence of \(\Omega\). In this paper, the authors study the area minimizing problem in conformal cones. This concept is a generalization of the cones in Euclidean spaces and the cylinders in product manifolds. The main result of the paper states that if \(\Omega\) is a \(C^2\) bounded domain with mean convex boundary and the non-closed-minimal property, and a positive \(C^2\) function \(\varphi(r)\) satisfies \[ \varphi'(r)>0\text{ on }(-\infty,A),\text{ and}\tag{*} \] \[ \left|\frac{\varphi'(r)}{\varphi(r)}\right|\leq \mu_0\text{ on }(-\infty,a) \text{ for some }a<A\text{ and a positive constant }\mu_0,\tag{**} \] then the Dirichlet problem admits a solution \(u\in C^2(\Omega)\cap C(\overline\Omega)\) for any \(\psi(x)\in C(\partial\Omega)\) satisfying \(\psi(x)<A\) on \(\partial\Omega\). In addition, if \((\log\varphi)(r)\ge 0\), for all \(r\in(-\infty,A)\), such solution is unique. As an application of the main result, the authors establish the existence of bounded minimal graphs in mean convex conformal cones by showing that if \(\Omega\) is a \(C^2\) mean convex bounded domain with the non-closed-minimal property, and \(Q_\varphi\) is a conformal cone satisfying conditions \((*)\) and \((**)\), then there is a smooth function \(u(x)\) over \(\Omega\) such that its graph is a minimal graph in \(Q_\varphi\) with the infinity boundary \(\partial\Omega\times\{A\}\), where \(A\) is a finite number in the definition of \(\varphi\). Moreover, those minimal graphs are the solutions to corresponding area minimizing problems. The authors solve the area minimizing problem in non-mean convex translating conformal cones if these cones are contained in a larger mean convex conformal cones with the non-closed-minimal property assumption. They give examples to illustrate that this assumption cannot be removed from the main results.

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