Given a $C^1$ function $\mathcal{H}$ defined in the unit sphere $\mathbb{S}^2$, an $\mathcal{H}$-surface $M$ is a surface in the Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^3$ whose mean curvature $H_M$ satisfies $H_M(p)=\mathcal{H}(N_p)$, $p\in M$, where $N$ is the Gauss map of $M$. Given a closed simple curve $Γ\subset\mathbb{R}^3$ and a function $\mathcal{H}$, in this paper we investigate the geometry of compact $\mathcal{H}$-surfaces spanning $Γ$ in terms of $Γ$. Under mild assumptions on $\mathcal{H}$, we prove non-existence of closed $\mathcal{H}$-surfaces, in contrast with the classical case of constant mean curvature. We give conditions on $\mathcal{H}$ that ensure that if $Γ$ is a circle, then $M$ is a rotational surface. We also establish the existence of estimates of the area of $\mathcal{H}$-surfaces in terms of the height of the surface.
We develop a compactness result near the boundary for families of locally convex immersions. We also develop a mod 2 degree theory for immersion of constant (and prescribed) Gaussian curvature with prescribed boundary. These are then used to solve the Plateau problem for immersions of constant (and prescribed) Gaussian curvature in general Hadamard manifolds.
We study rotational surfaces in Euclidean 3-space whose Gauss curvature is given as a prescribed function of its Gauss map. By means of a phase plane analysis and under mild assumptions on the prescribed function, we generalize the classification of rotational surfaces of constant Gauss curvature; exhibit examples that cannot exist in the constant Gauss curvature case; and analyze the asymptotic behavior of strictly convex graphs. We also prove the existence of singular radial solutions intersecting orthogonally the axis of rotation.
Let M be a compact Riemannian manifold and E a Riemannian vector bundle on M. We look for hypersurfaces of E with a prescribed vertical Gaussian curvature. In trying to solve this problem fibre-wise, we loose the regularity of the resulting solution. To unsure the smoothness of the solution, we construct it as a radial graph over the unit sphere subbundle of E and prove its existence by solving in this one a nonlinear partial differential equation of Monge-Ampère type.
We study that the $n-$graphs defining by smooth map $f:\Om\subset \ir{n}\to \ir{m}, m\ge 2,$ in $\ir{m+n}$ of the prescribed mean curvature and the Gauss image. We derive the interior curvature estimates $$\sup_{D_R(x)}|B|^2\le\f{C}{R^2}$$ under the dimension limitations and the Gauss image restrictions. If there is no dimension limitation we obtain $$\sup_{D_R(x)}|B|^2\le C R^{-a}\sup_{D_{2R}(x)}(2-\De_f)^{-(\f{3}{2}+\f{1}{s})}, \qquad s=\min(m, n)$$ with $a<1$ under the condition $$\De_f=[\text{det}(\de_{ij}+\sum_\a\pd{f^\a}{x^i}\pd{f^\a}{x^j})]^{\f{1}{2}}<2.$$ If the image under the Gauss m…
We prove an existence theorem for convex hypersurfaces of prescribed Gauss curvature in the complement of a compact set in Euclidean space which are close to a cone.
We are concerned with spacelike convex hypersurfaces of positive constant (K-hypersurfaces) or prescribed Gauss curvature in Minkowski space. Our main purpose is to study entire solutions as well as the Dirichlet problem in bounded domains of the related Monge-Ampere equation.
Given $a,b\in\mathbb{R}$ and $Φ\in C^1(\mathbb{S}^2)$, we study immersed oriented surfaces $Σ$ in the Euclidean 3-space $\mathbb{R}^3$ whose mean curvature $H$ and Gauss curvature $K$ satisfy $2aH+bK=Φ(N)$, where $N:Σ\rightarrow\mathbb{S}^2$ is the Gauss map. This theory widely generalize some of paramount importance such as the ones constant mean and Gauss curvature surfaces, linear Weingarten surfaces and self-translating solitons of the mean curvature flow. Under mild assumptions on the prescribed function $Φ$, we exhibit a classification result for rotational surfaces in the case that the …
In this note, we prove that the abstract gradient flow introduced by Baird-Fardoun-Regbaoui \cite{BFR}is well-posed on a closed Riemann surface with conical singularity. Long time existence and convergence of the flow are proved under certain assumptions. As an application, the prescribed Gaussian curvature problem is solved when the singular Euler characteristic of the conical surface is non-positive.
In this paper, we consider prescribed shifted Gauss curvature equations for horo-convex hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{H}^{n+1}$. Under some sufficient condition, we obtain an existence result by the standard degree theory based on the a prior estimates for the solutions to the equations. Different from the prescribed Weingarten curvature problem in space forms, we do not impose a sign condition for radial derivative of the functions in the right-hand side of the equations to prove the existence due to the horo-covexity of hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{H}^{n+1}$.
We obtain a classification result for rotational surfaces in the Heisenberg space and the universal cover of the special linear group, whose mean curvature is given as a prescribed $C^1$ function depending on their angle function. We show that these surfaces behave like the Delaunay surfaces of constant mean curvature, under some assumptions on the prescribed function. In contrast with the constant mean curvature case, we exhibit the existence of rotational, embedded tori, providing counterexamples of the Alexandrov problem for this class of immersed surfaces.
It is proved that the equality $Δ\ln|κ-λ|=6κ$, where $κ$ is the Gaussian curvature of a metric tensor g on a 2-dimensional manifold is a sufficient and necessary condition for local realizability of the metric as the Blaschke metric of some affine sphere.
In this paper we solve the Björling problem for the class of immersed surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^3$ whose mean curvature is given as an analytic function depending on its Gauss map. As an application, we prove the existence of surfaces with the topology of a Möbius strip for an arbitrary large class of prescribed functions. In particular, we use the Björling problem to construct the first known examples of self-translating solitons of the mean curvature flow with the topology of a Möbius strip in $\mathbb{R}^3$
This paper is concerned with the existence of conformal metrics of the disk with prescribed Gaussian and geodesic curvatures. Being more specific, given nonnegative smooth functions $K: \overline{\mathbb{D}} \to \mathbb{R}$ and $h: \partial \mathbb{D} \to \mathbb{R}$, we consider the problem of finding a conformal metric realizing $K$ and $h$ as Gaussian and geodesic curvatures, respectively. This is the natural analogue of the classical Nirenberg problem posed on the disk. As we shall see, both curvatures play a role in the existence of solutions. Indeed we are able to give existence results …
We prove new results on existence of solutions for the prescribed gaussian curvature problem on the euclidean sphere S^2. Those results are achieved by relating this problem with the holomorphic triples theory on Riemann surfaces. We think this approach might be applied to study some other semi-linear elliptic equations of 2nd order on the sphere.
Our aim is to study invariant hypersurfaces immersed in the Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$, whose mean curvature is given as a linear function in the unit sphere $\mathbb{S}^n$ depending on its Gauss map. These hypersurfaces are closely related with the theory of manifolds with density, since their weighted mean curvature in the sense of Gromov is constant. In this paper we obtain explicit parametrizations of constant curvature hypersurfaces, and also give a classification of rotationally invariant hypersurfaces.
In this paper, we study the following prescribed Gaussian curvature problem $$K=\frac{\tilde{f}(θ)}{ϕ(ρ)^{α-2}\sqrt{ϕ(ρ)^2+|\bar{\nabla}ρ|^2}},$$ a generalization of the Alexandrov problem ($α=n+1$) in hyperbolic space, where $\tilde{f}$ is a smooth positive function on $\mathbb{S}^{n}$, $ρ$ is the radial function of the hypersurface, $ϕ(ρ)=\sinhρ$ and $K$ is the Gauss curvature. By a flow approach, we obtain the existence and uniqueness of solutions to the above equations when $α\geq n+1$. Our argument provides a parabolic proof in smooth category for the Alexandrov problem in $\mathbb{H}^{n+…
The purpose of this paper is to study immersed surfaces in the product spaces $\mathbb{M}^2(κ)\times\mathbb{R}$, whose mean curvature is given as a $C^1$ function depending on their angle function. This class of surfaces extends widely, among others, the well-known theory of surfaces with constant mean curvature. In this paper we give necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of prescribed mean curvature spheres, and we describe complete surfaces of revolution proving that they behave as the Delaunay surfaces of CMC type.
We revisit the problem of prescribing negative Gauss curvature for graphs embedded in $\mathbb R^{n+1}$ when $n\geq 2$. The problem reduces to solving a fully nonlinear Monge-Ampère equation that becomes hyperbolic in the case of negative curvature. We show that the linearization around a graph with Lorentzian Hessian can be written as a geometric wave equation for a suitable Lorentzian metric in dimensions $n\geq 3$. Using energy estimates for the linearized equation and a version of the Nash-Moser iteration, we show the local solvability for the fully nonlinear equation. Finally, we discuss …
We introduce a new perspective on the classical Nirenberg problem of understanding the possible Gauss curvatures of metrics on $S^{2}$ conformal to the round metric. A key tool is to employ the smooth Cheeger-Gromov compactness theorem to obtain general and essentially sharp a priori estimates for Gauss curvatures $K$ contained in naturally defined stable regions. We prove that in such stable regions, the map $u \rightarrow K_{g}$, $g = e^{2u}g_{+1}$ is a proper Fredholm map with well-defined degree on each component. This leads to a number of new existence and non-existence results. We also p…
The aim of this paper is to extend classic results of the theory of CMC surfaces in the product spaces to the class of immersed surfaces in $\mathbb{M}^2(κ)\times\mathbb{R}$ whose mean curvature is given as a $C^1$ function depending on their angle function. We cover topics such as the existence of a priori curvature estimates for graphs, height estimates for horizontal and vertical compact graphs and a structure-type result, which classifies all the simply connected, properly embedded surfaces with finite topology.
Motivated by the large ammount of results obtained for minimal and positive constant mean curvature surfaces in several ambient spaces, the aim of this paper is to obtain half-space theorems for properly immersed surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^3$ whose mean curvature is given as a prescribed function of its Gauss map. In order to achieve this purpose, we will study the behavior at infinity of a 1-parameter family of properly embedded annuli that are analogous to the usual minimal catenoids.
We consider graphs Sigma^n in R^m with prescribed mean curvature and flat normal bundle. Using techniques of Schoen, Simon and Yau, and Ecker-Huisken, we derive an interior curvature estimate of the form |A|^2<=C/R^2 up to dimension n<=5, where C is a constant depending on natural geometric data of Sigma^n only. This generalizes previous results of Smoczyk, Wang and Xin, and Wang for minimal graphs with flat normal bundle.
Let $(M,g)$ be a two dimensional compact Riemannian manifold of genus $g(M)>1$. Let $f$ be a smooth function on $M$ such that $$f \ge 0, \quad f\not\equiv 0, \quad \min_M f = 0. $$ Let $p_1,\ldots,p_n$ be any set of points at which $f(p_i)=0$ and $D^2f(p_i)$ is non-singular. We prove that for all sufficiently small $λ>0$ there exists a family of "bubbling" conformal metrics $g_λ=e^{u_λ}g$ such that their Gauss curvature is given by the sign-changing function $K_{g_λ}=-f+λ^2$. Moreover, the family $u_λ$ satisfies $$u_λ(p_j) = -4\logλ-2\log \left (\frac 1{\sqrt{2}} \log \frac 1λ\right ) +O(1)$$ …
We develop a global theory for complete hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ whose mean curvature is given as a prescribed function of its Gauss map. This theory extends the usual one of constant mean curvature hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$, and also that of self-translating solitons of the mean curvature flow. For the particular case $n=2$, we will obtain results regarding a priori height and curvature estimates, non-existence of complete stable surfaces, and classification of properly embedded surfaces with at most one end.
This paper is devoted to $C^2$ a priori estimates for strictly locally convex radial graphs with prescribed Weingarten curvature and boundary in space forms. By constructing two-step continuity process and applying degree theory arguments, existence results in space forms are established for prescribed Gauss curvature equation under the assumption of a strictly locally convex subsolution.
The problem of immersing a simply connected surface with a prescribed shape operator is discussed. From classical and more recent work, it is known that, aside from some special degenerate cases, such as when the shape operator can be realized by a surface with one family of principal curves being geodesic, the space of such realizations is a convex set in an affine space of dimension at most 3. The cases where this maximum dimension of realizability is achieved have been classified and it is known that there are two such families of shape operators, one depending essentially on three arbitrar…
In this paper, we investigate the existence and uniqueness of convex, entire, spacelike hypersurfaces of constant $σ_k$ curvature with prescribed set of lightlike directions $\mathcal{F}\subset\mathbb{S}^{n-1}$ and perturbation $q$ on $\mathcal{F}$. We prove that given a closed set $\mathcal{F}$ in the ideal boundary at infinity of hyperbolic space and a perturbation $q$ that satisfies some mild conditions, there exists a complete entire spacelike constant $σ_k$ curvature hypersurface $\mathcal{M}_u$ with prescribed set of lightlike directions $\mathcal{F}$ satisfying when $\frac{x}{|x|}\in\ma…
We study rotational hypersurfaces with constant Gauss-Kronecker curvature. We solve the ODE for the generating curves of such hypersurfaces and analyze several geometric properties of such hypersurfaces. In particular, we discover a class of non-compact rotational hypersurfaces with constant and negative Gauss-Kronecker curvature and finite volume, which can be seen as the higher-dimensional generalization of the pseudo-sphere. Finally we investigate other types of rotational hypersurfaces with similar curvature constraints, including those with prescribed Gauss-Kronecker curvature.
In this paper, we study the $L_p$-Gaussian Minkowski problem, which arises in the $L_p$-Brunn-Minkowski theory in Gaussian probability space. We use Aleksandrov's variational method with Lagrange multipliers to prove the existence of the logarithmic Gauss Minkowski problem. We construct a suitable Gauss curvature flow of closed, convex hypersurfaces in the Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$, and prove its long-time existence and converges smoothly to a smooth solution of the normalized $L_p$ Gaussian Minkowski problem in cases of $p>0$ and $-n-1<p\leq 0$ with even prescribed function respectiv…
We prove existence and stability of smooth entire strictly convex spacelike hypersurfaces of prescribed Gauss curvature in Minkowski space. The proof is based on barrier constructions and local a priori estimates.
The geometric Cauchy problem for a class of surfaces in a pseudo-Riemannian manifold of dimension 3 is to find the surface which contains a given curve with a prescribed tangent bundle along the curve. We consider this problem for constant negative Gauss curvature surfaces (pseudospherical surfaces) in Euclidean 3-space, and for timelike constant non-zero mean curvature (CMC) surfaces in the Lorentz-Minkowski 3-space. We prove that there is a unique solution if the prescribed curve is non-characteristic, and for characteristic initial curves (asymptotic curves for pseudospherical surfaces and …
Let $M$ be an open Riemann surface and let $Λ\subset M$ be a closed discrete subset. In this paper, we prove the existence of complete conformal minimal immersions $M\to\mathbb{R}^n$, $n\ge 3$, with prescribed values on $Λ$ and whose generalized Gauss map $M\to\mathbb{CP}^{n-1}$, $n\ge 3$, avoids $n$ hyperplanes of $\mathbb{CP}^{n-1}$ located in general position. In case $n=3$, we obtain complete nonflat conformal minimal immersions whose Gauss map $M\to\mathbb{S}^2$ omits two (antipodal) values of the sphere. This result is deduced as a consequence of an interpolation theorem for conformal mi…
Existence of disks with prescribed mean curvature and contact angle in arbitrary codimension
School of Mathematics and Statistics, Shaanxi Normal University(陕西师范大学数学与统计学院);School of Mathematical Sciences, Shanghai Jiao Tong University(上海交通大学数学科学学院)
We use a phase space analysis to give some classification results for rotational hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ whose mean curvature is given as a prescribed function of its Gauss map. For the case where the prescribed function is an even function in $\mathbb{S}^n$, we show that a Delaunay-type classification holds for this class of hypersurfaces. We also exhibit examples showing that the behavior of rotational hypersurfaces of prescribed (non-constant) mean curvature is much richer than in the constant mean curvature case.
We study conformally flat surfaces with prescribed Gaussian curvature, described by solutions $u$ of the PDE: $Δu(x)+K(x)\exp(2u(x))=0$, with $K(x)$ the Gauss curvature function at $x\in\RR^2$. We assume that the integral curvature is finite. For radially symmetric $K$ we introduce the notion of a least integrally curved surface, and also the notion of when such a surface is critical. With respect to these notions we analyze the radial symmetry of $u$ for the whole spectrum of possible integral curvature values. Under a mild integrability condition which rules out harmonic non-radial behavior …
In this article, we give the integrability conditions for the existence of an isometric immersion from an orientable simply connected surface having prescribed Gauss map and positive extrinsic curvature into some unimodular Lie groups. In particular, we discuss the case when the Lie group is the euclidean unit sphere $\mathbb{S}^3$ and establish a correspondence between simply connected surfaces having extrinsic curvature $K$, $K$ different from 0 and -1, immersed in $\mathbb{S}^3$ with simply connected surfaces having non-vanishing extrinsic curvature immersed in the euclidean space $\mathbb{…
We consider strictly convex hypersurfaces which are evolving by the non-parametric logarithmic Gauss curvature flow subject to a Neumann boundary condition. Solutions are shown to converge smoothly to hypersurfaces moving by translation. In particular, for bounded domains we prove that convex functions with prescribed normal derivative satisfy a uniform oscillation estimate.
We study conformal metrics with prescribed Gaussian curvature on surfaces with conical singularities and geodesic boundary in supercritical regimes. Exploiting a variational argument, we derive a general existence result for surfaces with at least two boundary components. This seems to be the first result in this setting. Moreover, we allow to have conical singularities with both positive and negative orders, that is cone angles both less and grater than $2π$.
We consider an evolution problem associated to the Kazdan-Warner equation on a closed Riemann surface $(Σ,g)$ \begin{align*} -Δ_{g}u=8π\left(\frac{he^{u}}{\int_Σhe^{u}{\rm d}μ_{g}}-\frac{1}{\int_Σ{\rm d}μ_{g}}\right) \end{align*} where the prescribed function $h\geq0$ and $\max_Σh>0$. We prove the global existence and convergence under additional assumptions such as \begin{align*} Δ_{g}\ln h(p_0)+8π-2K(p_0)>0 \end{align*} for any maximum point $p_0$ of the sum of $2\ln h$ and the regular part of the Green function, where $K$ is the Gaussian curvature of $Σ$. In particular, this gives a new pro…
In this article, we give results of prescribing scalar and mean curvature functions for metrics either pointwise conformal or conformally equivalent to a Riemannian metric that is equipped on a compact manifold with boundary, with dimensions at least $ 3 $. The results are classified by the sign of the first eigenvalue of the conformal Laplacian. This leads to a "Trichotomy Theorem" in terms of both scalar and mean curvature functions, which is a full extension of the "Trichotomy Theorem" given by Kazdan and Warner. We also discuss prescribing Gauss and geodesic curvature problems on compact R…
Analog to the classical result of Kazdan-Warner for the existence of solutions to the prescribed Gaussian curvature equation on compact 2-manifolds without boundary, it is widely known that if $(M,g_0)$ is a closed 4-manifold with zero $Q$-curvature and if $f$ is any non-constant, smooth, sign-changing function with $\int_M f dμ_{{\it g}_0} <0$, then there exists at least one solution $u$ to the prescribed $Q$-curvature equation \[ \mathbf{P}_{g_0} u = f e^{4u}, \] where $\mathbf{P}_{g_0}$ is the Paneitz operator which is positive with kernel consisting of constant functions. In this paper, we…
The Gaussian curvature of a two-dimensional Riemannian manifold is uniquely determined by the choice of the metric. The formulas for computing the curvature in terms of components of the metric, in isothermal coordinates, involve the Laplacian operator and therefore, the problem of finding a Riemannian metric for a given curvature form may be viewed as a potential theory problem. This problem has, generally speaking, a multitude of solutions. To specify the solution uniquely, we ask that the metric have the mean value property for harmonic functions with respect to some given point. This means…
We prove a local well-posedness theorem for the (n+1)-dimensional Einstein equations in Lorentzian signature, with initial data $(\tilde g, K)$ whose asymptotic geometry at infinity is similar to that anti-de Sitter (AdS) space, and compatible boundary data $\hat g$ prescribed at the time-like conformal boundary of space-time. More precisely, we consider an n-dimensional asymptotically hyperbolic Riemannian manifold $(M,\tilde g)$ such that the conformally rescaled metric $x^2 \tilde g$ (with $x$ a boundary defining function) extends to the closure $\bar M$ of $M$ as a metric of class $C^{n-1}…
In his book on Convex Polyhedra (section 7.2), A.D. Aleksandrov raised a general question of finding variational statements and proofs of existence of polytopes with given geometric data. The first goal of this paper is to give a variational solution to the problem of existence and uniqueness of a closed convex hypersurface in Euclidean space with prescribed integral Gauss curvature. Our solution includes the case of a convex polytope. This problem was also first considered by Aleksandrov and below it is referred to as Aleksandrov's problem. The second goal of this paper is to show that in var…
We study minimal immersions of closed surfaces (of genus $g \ge 2$) in hyperbolic 3-manifolds, with prescribed data $(σ, tα)$, where $σ$ is a conformal structure on a topological surface $S$, and $αdz^2$ is a holomorphic quadratic differential on the surface $(S,σ)$. We show that, for each $t \in (0,τ_0)$ for some $τ_0 > 0$, depending only on $(σ, α)$, there are at least two minimal immersions of closed surface of prescribed second fundamental form $Re(tα)$ in the conformal structure $σ$. Moreover, for $t$ sufficiently large, there exists no such minimal immersion. Asymptotically, as $t \to 0$…
Quantitative Estimates on the Topology and Singular Set of Prescribed Mean Curvature Hypersurfaces
National Taiwan Normal University(台湾师范大学);Instituto de Matemáticas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México(墨西哥国立自治大学数学研究所);University of Cambridge(剑桥大学)
This paper concerns the global theory of properly embedded spacelike surfaces in three-dimensional Minkowski space in relation to their Gaussian curvature. We prove that every regular domain which is not a wedge is uniquely foliated by properly embedded convex surfaces of constant Gaussian curvature. This is a consequence of our classification of surfaces with bounded prescribed Gaussian curvature, sometimes called the Minkowski problem, for which partial results were obtained by Li, Guan-Jian-Schoen, and Bonsante-Seppi. Some applications to minimal Lagrangian self-maps of the hyperbolic plane…