Plateau's problem via the Allen--Cahn functional

MaRDI QIDQ6509880arXivFDO

Authors Marco A. M. Guaraco, Stephen Lynch

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Semilinear elliptic equations (35J61) Ginzburg-Landau equations (35Q56) Minimal surfaces and optimization (49Q05) Minimal surfaces in differential geometry, surfaces with prescribed mean curvature (53A10)

Abstract: We use a variant of the Allen--Cahn energy to produce minimal hypersurfaces with prescribed boundary. The energy we consider is defined on the space of sections of a real line bundle over the complement of a smooth boundary. By studying minimizing sections in the sharp interface limit, we give a new proof that the smooth Plateau problem admits a solution if the boundary is any curve in $3$-dimensional space, or lies in a strictly convex hypersurface in dimensions 4 through to 7. The method also gives a new proof that each nontrivial $(n-1)$-homology class on a closed Riemannian $n$-manifold contains an area minimizing hypersurface, provided that $2leqnleq7$.

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