The Plateau problem for convex curvature functions
Graham Smith
备注：
Formerly, "The Plateau problem for general curvature functions". Significantly revised for the sake of improved clarity, incorporating notational changes made to arXiv:1002.2982, modifying emphasis on results so as to better reflect the main interests of experts in the field, and tidying up results and removing inelegant technical conditions which have proven themselves to be unnecessary
We present a novel and comprehensive approach to the study of the parametric Plateau problem for locally strictly convex (LSC) hypersurfaces of prescribed curvature for general convex curvature functions inside general Riemannian manifolds. We prove existence of solutions to the Plateau problem with outer barrier for LSC hypersurfaces of constant or prescribed curvature for general curvature functions inside general Hadamard manifolds modulo a single scalar condition. In particular, convex curvature functions of bounded type are fully treated.
We study metrics with positive scalar curvatures in domains with corners and suggest possible extensions of the concept of positive scalar curvature to singular spaces.
We provide a new proof of the classical result that any closed rectifiable Jordan curve Gamma in space being piecewise of class C^2 bounds at least one immersed minimal surface of disc-type, under the additional assumption that the total curvature of Gamma is smaller than 6*Pi. In contrast to the methods due to Osserman, Gulliver and Alt, our proof relies on a polygonal approximation technique, using the existence of immersed solutions of Plateau's problem for polygonal boundary curves, provided by the first author's accomplishment of Garnier's ideas.
We describe a novel technique for solving the Plateau problem for constant curvature hypersurfaces based on recent work of Harvey and Lawson. This is illustrated by an existence theorem for hypersurfaces of constant Gaussian curvature in $\Bbb{R}^{n+1}$.
Using the Perron method, we prove the existence of hypersurfaces of prescribed special Lagrangian curvature with prescribed boundary inside complete Riemannian manifolds of non-positive curvature.
We show that for a very general class of curvature functions defined in the positive cone, the problem of finding a complete strictly locally convex hypersurface in $H^n+1$ satisfying $f(κ)=σ\in(0, 1)$ with a prescribed asymptotic boundary $Γ$ at infinity has at least one smooth solution with uniformly bounded hyperbolic principal curvatures. Moreover if $Γ$ is (Euclidean) starshaped, the solution is unique and also (Euclidean) starshaped while if $Γ$ is mean convex the solution is unique. We also show via a strong duality theorem that analogous results hold in De Sitter space. A novel feature…
We prove dynamical stability of a natural class of hypersurface laminations defined over Cartan--Hadamard manifolds of pinched curvature. We achieve this by providing a complete solution to the asymptotic Plateau problem for immersed surfaces of constant extrinsic curvature in Cartan--Hadamard manifolds, proposed by Labourie in [25], together with its natural higher-dimensional generalisation.
Let $(M,Q)$ be a compact, three dimensional manifold of strictly negative sectional curvature. Let $(Σ,P)$ be a compact, orientable surface of hyperbolic type (i.e. of genus at least two). Let $θ:π_1(Σ,P)\toπ_1(M,Q)$ be a homomorphism. Generalising a recent result of Gallo, Kapovich and Marden concerning necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of complex projective structures with specified holonomy to manifolds of non-constant negative curvature, we obtain necessary conditions on $θ$ for the existence of a so called $θ$-equivariant Plateau problem over $Σ$, which is equivalent t…
We study the asymptotic Dirichlet and Plateau problems on Cartan-Hadamard manifolds satisfying the so-called Strict Convexity (abbr. SC) condition. The main part of the paper consists in studying the SC condition on a manifold whose sectional curvatures are bounded from above and below by certain functions depending on the distance to a fixed point. In particular, we are able to verify the SC condition on manifolds whose curvature lower bound can go to -infinity and upper bound to 0 simultaneously at certain rates, or on some manifolds whose sectional curvatures go to -infinity faster than any…
We study/construct (proper and non-proper) Morse functions on complete Riemannian manifolds, the level hypersurfaces of which have positive mean curvatures at all non-critical points. We show, for instance, that if a complete Rieannin manifold admits no such (not necessarily proper) function, then it contains a (possibly, singular) complete (possibly, compact) minimal hypersurface of finite volume.
In this paper, we solve the asymptotic Plateau problem in hyperbolic space for constant $σ_{n-1}$ curvature, i.e. the existence of a complete hypersurface in $\mathbb{H}^{n+1}$ satisfying $σ_{n-1}(κ)=σ\in (0,n)$ with a prescribed asymptotic boundary $Γ$. The key ingredient is the curvature estimates. Previously, this is only known for $σ_0<σ<n$, where $σ_0$ is a positive constant.
Let $M$ be a Hadamard manifold with curvature bounded above by a negative constant $-α$, satisfying the "strict convexity condition", and assume that $M$ admits a "helicoidal" one-parameter subgroup $G$ of isometries of $M$. Then, given a compact topological $G-$shaped hypersurface $Γ$ in the asymptotic boundary of $M,$ and $|H|<\sqrtα$, we prove the existence of a complete properly embedded hypersurface whose mean curvature is equal to $H$ and whose asymptotic boundary is $Γ$. We are able, this way, to extend a previous theorem of B.Guan and J.Spruck on the hyperbolic space to any rank 1 symm…
We show that for a very general and natural class of curvature functions (for example the curvature quotients $(σ_n/σ_l)^{\frac{1}{n-l}}$) the problem of finding a complete spacelike strictly convex hypersurface in de Sitter space satisfying $f(κ) = σ\in (1,\infty)$ with a prescribed compact future asymptotic boundary $Γ$ at infinity has at least one smooth solution (if l = 1 or l = 2 there is uniqueness). This is the exact analogue of the asymptotic plateau problem in Hyperbolic space and is in fact a precise dual problem. By using this duality we obtain for free the existence of strictly con…
The asymptotic Plateau problem for Hypersurfaces of constant $H_{k}$ curvature in hyperbolic space
Key Laboratory of Pure and Applied Mathematics, School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University（北京大学数学科学学院纯数学与计算数学重点实验室）；Institute of Mathematics, Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院数学与系统科学研究院数学研究所）
We generalize the Fenchel theorem for strong spacelike closed curves of index $1$ in the 3-dimensional Minkowski space, showing that the total curvature must be less than or equal to $2π$. Here strong spacelike means that the tangent vector and the curvature vector span a spacelike 2-plane at each point of the curve $γ$ under consideration. The assumption of index 1 is equivalent to saying that $γ$ winds around some timelike axis with winding number 1. We prove this reversed Fenchel-type inequality by constructing a ruled spacelike surface with the given curve as boundary and applying the Gaus…
We approximate boundaries of convex polytopes by smooth hypersurfaces $Y=Y_\varepsilon$ with {\it positive mean curvatures} and, by using basic geometric relations between the scalar curvatures of Riemannin manifolds and the mean curvatures of their boundaries, establish {\it lower bound on the dihedral angles} of these polytopes.
We investigate on the existence of smooth complete hypersurface with prescribed Weingarten curvature and asymptotic boundary at infinity in hyperbolic space under the assumption that there exists an asymptotic subsolution. We give an affirmative answer for the case $k = n$ when the asymptotic boundary $Γ$ bounds a uniformly convex domain, and for $k < n$ when $Γ$ bounds a disk, utilizing Pogorelov type interior second order estimate. Our result complements our previous work \cite{Sui2019, Sui-Sun}, and generalizes the asymptotic Plateau type problem to non-constant prescribed curvature case.
We investigate the existence, convergence and uniqueness of modified general curvature flow of convex hypersurfaces in hyperbolic space with a prescribed asymptotic boundary.
We study fully nonlinear geometric flows that deform strictly $k$-convex hypersurfaces in Euclidean space with pointwise normal speed given by a concave function of the principal curvatures. Specifically, the speeds we consider are obtained by performing a nonlinear interpolation between the mean and the $k$-harmonic mean of the principal curvatures. Our main result is a convexity estimate showing that, on compact solutions, regions of high curvature are approximately convex. In contrast to the mean curvature flow, the fully nonlinear flows considered here preserve $k$-convexity in a Riemannia…
We prove that any complete immersed globally orientable uniformly 2-convex translating soliton $Σ\subset \mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ for the mean curvature flow is locally strictly convex. It follows that a uniformly 2-convex entire graphical translating soliton in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1},\, n\geq 3 $ is the axisymmetric "bowl soliton".
We propose a new approach to the study of compact Riemannian manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature and strictly convex boundary or positive Ricci curvature and convex boundary. Several conjectures are formulated. Some partial results that support these conjectures are established.
On R^n endowed with a riemannian metric of bounded nonpositive curvature, the weakly convex closed subsets are topologically trivial. The stability of such subsets under intersection characterizes the euclidean spaces.
We prove the convexity estimates of Huisken-Sinestrari for finite-time singularities of mean-convex, mean curvature flow with free boundary in a barrier $S$. Here $S$ can be any properly embedded, oriented surface in $R^{n+1}$ of bounded geometry. We also give an alternative proof that convex mean curvature flows with free boundary in $S^n$ pinch to umbilic.
We show that, in toric manifolds, one can characterize the sign of the Ricci curvature in terms of the convexity of the volume functional. More generally we discuss relationships between (i) Ricci curvature and volume, (ii) totally real and Lagrangian submanifolds, (iii) pluri-subharmonic functions and convexity.
In this paper we find strictly locally convex hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ with prescribed curvature and boundary. The main result is that if the given data admits a strictly locally convex radial graph as a subsolution, we can find a radial graph realizing the prescribed curvature and boundary. As an application we show any smooth domain on the boundary of a compact strictly convex body can be deformed to a smooth hypersurface with the same boundary (inside the convex body) and realizing any prescribed curvature function smaller than the curvature of the body.
In this paper, we generalize a previous result to higher dimension. We prove that uniformly 3-convex translating solitons of mean curvature flow in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ which arise as blow up limit of embedded, mean convex mean curvature flow must have $SO(n-1)$ symmetry.
Using the convex functions in Grassmannian manifolds we can carry out interior estimates for mean curvature flow of higher codimension. In this way some of the results of Ecker-Huisken can be generalized to higher codimension
The existence of a smooth complete strictly locally convex hypersurface with prescribed scalar curvature and asymptotic boundary at infinity in $\mathbb{H}^{3}$ is proved under the assumption that there exists a strictly locally convex subsolution.
We obtain estimates on both size and dimensions of the singular set at the first blow-up time of the mean curvature flow of hypersurfaces whose initial data is $σ_k$-convex.
We classify the self-similar solutions to a class of Weingarten curvature flow of connected compact convex hypersurfaces, isometrically immersed into space forms with non-positive curvature, and obtain a new characterization of a sphere in a Euclidean space $\R^{n+1}$.
We prove that any smooth Riemannian manifold of non-negative scalar curvature and with a strictly mean convex and compact boundary component can be (C^2) extended beyond the component to have non-negative scalar curvature and to enjoy anyone of the following three types of (new) boundary: strictly convex, totally geodesic or strictly concave. The extension procedure can be applied for instance to "positive mass" type of theorems.
In this paper we prove that the H^k (k is odd and larger than 2) mean curvature flow of a closed convex hypersurface can be extended over the maximal time provided that the total L^p integral of the mean curvature is finite for some p
We prove that there exists, in every dimension, a unique (modulo rotations about the origin and time translations) convex ancient mean curvature flow in the ball with free boundary on the sphere.
In [AMW], it is proved that if a compact $3$-manifold has positive Ricci curvature and strictly convex boundary, then this manifold is diffeomorphic to the standard $3$-dimensional Euclidean disk. In this paper, we prove its higher-dimensional generalization: if a compact $n$-manifold has positive curvature operator and strictly convex boundary, then this manifold is diffeomorphic to the standard $n$-dimensional Euclidean disk.
By means of dual convex bodies, we obtain regularity of solutions to the expanding Gauss curvature flows with homogeneity degrees $-p$, $0<p<1$. At the end, we remark that our method can also be used to obtain regularity of solutions to the shrinking Gauss curvature flows with homogeneity degrees less than one.
We study solutions of the mean curvature flow which are defined for all negative curvature times, usually called ancient solutions. We give various conditions ensuring that a closed convex ancient solution is a shrinking sphere. Examples of such conditions are: a uniform pinching condition on the curvatures, a suitable growth bound on the diameter or a reverse isoperimetric inequality. We also study the behaviour of uniformly k-convex solutions, and consider generalizations to ancient solutions immersed in a sphere.
We provide a direct proof of a non-collapsing estimate for compact hypersurfaces with positive mean curvature moving under the mean curvature flow: Precisely, if every point on the initial hypersurface admits an interior sphere with radius inversely proportional to the mean curvature at that point, then this remains true for all positive times in the interval of existence.
We study topological obstructions to the existence of a Riemannian metric on manifolds with boundary such that the scalar curvature is non-negative and the boundary is mean convex. We construct many compact manifolds with boundary which admit no Riemannian metric with non-negative scalar curvature and mean convex boundary. For example, we show that the manifold $(T^{n-2}\times Σ)\# N$, where $Σ$ is a compact, connected and orientable surface which is not a disk or a cylinder and $N$ is a closed $n$-dimensional manifold, does not admit a metric of non-negative scalar curvature and mean convex b…
In this paper we consider three-manifolds with weakly umbilic boundary (the Second Fundamental form of the boundary is a constant multiple of the metric). We show that if the initial manifold has positive Ricci curvature and the boundary is convex (nonnegative Second Fundamental form), its metric can be deformed via the Ricci flow to a metric of constant curvature and totally geodesic boundary.
We consider the evolution by mean curvature of smooth $n$-dimensional submanifolds in $\mathbb{R}^{n+k}$ which are compact and quadratically pinched. We will be primarily interested in flows of high codimension, the case $k\geq 2$. We prove that our submanifold is asymptotically convex, that is the first eigenvalue of the second fundamental form in the principal mean curvature direction blows up at a strictly slower rate than the mean curvature vector. We use this convexity estimate to show that at a singular time of the flow, there exists a rescaling that converges to a smooth codimension-one…
We study the mean curvature flow of complete space-like submanifolds in pseudo-Euclidean space with bounded Gauss image, as well as that of complete submanifolds in Euclidean space with convex Gauss image. By using the confinable property of the Gauss image under the mean curvature flow we prove the long time existence results in both cases. We also study the asymptotic behavior of these solutions when $t\to\infty$.
We consider a convex Euclidean hypersurface that evolves by a volume or area preserving flow with speed given by a general nonhomogeneous function of the mean curvature. For a broad class of possible speed functions, we show that any closed convex hypersurface converges to a round sphere. The proof is based on the monotonicity of the isoperimetric ratio, which allows to control the inner and outer radius of the hypersurface and to deduce uniform bounds on the curvature by maximum principle arguments.
In this paper, we study a second order variational problem for locally convex hypersurfaces, which is the affine invariant analogue of the classical Plateau problem for minimal surfaces. We prove existence, regularity and uniqueness results for hypersurfaces maximizing affine area under appropriate boundary conditions.
We show that any strictly mean convex translator of dimension $n\geq 3$ which admits a cylindrical estimate and a corresponding gradient estimate is rotationally symmetric. As a consequence, we deduce that any translating solution of the mean curvature flow which arises as a blow-up limit of a two-convex mean curvature flow of compact immersed hypersurfaces of dimension $n\geq 3$ is rotationally symmetric. The proof is rather robust, and applies to a more general class of translator equations. As a particular application, we prove an analogous result for a class of flows of embedded hypersurfa…
We provide several characterisations of collapsing and noncollapsing in convex ancient mean curvature flow, establishing in particular that collapsing occurs if and only if the flow is asymptotic to at least one Grim hyperplane. As a consequence, we rule out collapsing singularity models in $(n-1)$-convex mean curvature flow (even when the initial datum is only immersed). Explicit counterexamples show that $(n-1)$-convexity is optimal. We are also able to rule out collapsing singularity models for suitably pinched solutions of higher codimension.
A submanifold $M^m$ of a Euclidean space $R^{m+p}$ is said to have harmonic mean curvature vector field if $Δ\vec{H}=0$, where $\vec{H}$ is the mean curvature vector field of $M\hookrightarrow R^{m+p}$ and $Δ$ is the rough Laplacian on $M$. There is a conjecture named after Bangyen Chen which states that submanifolds of Euclidean spaces with harmonic mean curvature vector fields are minimal. In this paper we prove that weakly convex hypersurfaces (i.e. hypersurfaces whose principle curvatures are nonnegative) with harmonic mean curvature vector fields in Euclidean spaces are minimal. Furthermo…
