The Symmetric Minimal Surface Equation

TL;DR

This paper develops a theory for singular solutions of the Symmetric Minimal Surface Equation, including existence, regularity, and the structure of the singular set, which is shown to have codimension at most 2.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive framework for analyzing singular solutions of the SME, including existence, regularity estimates, and the geometric structure of singular sets.

Findings

Existence of singular solutions with zero sets of codimension at most 2.

Hölder and Lipschitz regularity estimates for bounded solutions.

The singular set is shown to have codimension at most 2.

Abstract

For positive functions $u\in C^{2}(\Omega) $, where $\Omega$ is an open subset of $\mathbb{R}^{n}$, the Symmetric Minimal Surface Equation (SME), is $\sum_{i=1}^{n}D_{i}\bigl(\frac{D_{i}u}{\sqrt{1+|Du|^{2}}}\bigr)=\frac{m-1}{u\sqrt{1+|Du|^{2}}}$. Geometrically, the SME expresses the fact that the ``symmetric graph'' $SG(u)$, defined by $SG(u)=\bigl\{(x,\xi)\in \Omega\times\mathbb{R}^{m}:|\xi|=u(x)\bigr\}$, is a minimal (i.e.\ zero mean curvature) hypersurface in $\Omega\times\mathbb{R}^{m}$. A function $u\in C^{1}(\Omega)$ is said to be a singular solution if $u^{-1}\{0\}\neq \emptyset$, and if $u=\lim_{j\to\infty}u_{j}$, uniformly on each compact subset of $\Omega$, where each $u_{j}$ is a positive $C^{2}(\Omega)$ solution of the SME. The present paper develops are theory of singular solutions of the SME, including existence, H\"older and Lipschitz estimates for bounded solutions, and a compactness and regularity theory. We also prove that the singular set $u^{-1}{\{0\}}$ is codimension at most 2.