Abstract
We introduce a conjecture that we call the Two Hyperplane Conjecture, saying that an isoperimetric surface that divides a convex body in half by volume is trapped between parallel hy-perplanes. The conjecture is motivated by an approach we propose to the Hots Spots Conjecture of J. Rauch using deformation and hipschitz bounds for level sets of eigenfunctions. We will relate this approach to quantitative connectivity properties of level sets of solutions to elliptic variational problems, including isoperimetric inequalities, Poincare inequalities, Harnack inequalities, and NTA (non-tangentially accessibility). This paper mostly asks questions rather than answering them, while recasting known results in a new light. Its main theme is that the level sets of least energy solutions to scalar variational problems should be as simple as possible.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aguilera, N. E., Caffarelli, L. A., Spruck, J.: An optimization problem in heat conduction. Ann. Scuola Norm. Sup. Pisa CI. Sc. (4), 14, 355–387 (1988)
Alt, H. W., Caffarelli, L. A.: Existence and regularity for a minimum problem with free boundary. J. Reine Angew. Math., 325, 105–144 (1981)
Atar, R., Burdzy, K.: On Neumann eigenfunctions in lip domains. J. Amer. Math. Soc., 17(2), 243–265 (2004)
Bobkov, S.: Extremal properties of half-spaces for log-concave distributions. Ann. Probab., 24(1), 35–48 (1996)
Bombieri, E., Giusti, E.: Harnack's Inequality for elliptic differential equations on minimal surfaces. Inv. Math., 15, 24–46 (1972)
Bombieri, E., De Giorgi, E., Miranda, M.: Una maggiorazione a priori relativa alle ipersuperfice minimali nonparametriche, (Italian). Arch. Rational Mech. Anal, 32, 255–267 (1969)
Borell, C.: The Brunn-Minkowski inequality in Gauss space. Invent. Math., 30(2), 207–216 (1975)
Burdzy, K.: The hot spots problem in planar domains with one hole. Duke Math. J., 129(3), 481–502 (2003)
Caffarelli, L. A., Salsa, S.: A Geometric Approach to Eree Boundary Problems, Graduate Studies in Mathematics, 68, American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI, 2005
David, G., Semmes, S.: Quantitative rectifiability and Lipschitz mappings. Trans. A. M. S., 337, 855–889 (1993)
David, G., Semmes, S.: Quasiminimal surfaces of codimension 1 and John domains. Pac. J. of Math., 183(2), 213–277 (1998)
De Silva, D.: Existence and regularity of monotone solutions to free boundary problems. American J. of Math., 131(2), 351–378 (2009)
De Silva, D., Jerison, D.: A gradient bound for free boundary graphs. Coram. Pure Appl. Math., 64(4), 538–555 (2011)
Giusti, E.: Minimal Surfaces and Functions of Bounded Variation, Birkhäuser Boston-Basel-Stuttgart, 1984
Gromov, M.: Paul Lévy's Isoperimetric Inequality, Preprint IHES/M/80/320, Inst. Hautes Etud. Sci. Bures-sur-Yvette, 1980
Jerison, D. S., Kenig, C. E.: Boundary behavior of harmonic functions in nontangentially accessible domains. Advances in Math., 46(1), 80–147 (1982)
Jerison, D., Nadirashvili, N.: The “hot spots” conjecture for domains with two axes of symmetry. J. Amer. Math. Soc., 13(4), 741–772 (2000)
Judge, C., Mondal, S.: Euclidean triangles have no hot spots, Preprint 2018, arXiv:1802.01800v2
Klartag, B.: A Berry—Essen type inequality for convex bodies with unconditional basis. Probab. Theory Relat. Fields, 145, 1–33 (2009)
Kolesnikov, A. V., Zhdanov, R. I.: On isoperimetric sets of radially symmetric measures. In Concentration, Functional Inequalities and Isoperimetry, 123–154, Contemp. Math., 545, Amer. Math. Soc., Providence, RI, 2011
Milman, E.: On the role of convexity in isoperimetry, spectral-gap and concentration. Invent. Math., 177(1), 1–43 (2009)
Milman, E.: Isoperimetric and concentration inequalities — equivalence under curvature lower bound. Duke Math. J., 154(2), 207–239, 2010
Milman, E.: Isoperimetric bounds on convex manifolds. In C. Houdre, M. Ledoux, E. Milman, and M. Milman, editors, Concentration, Functional Inequalities and Isoperimetry, volume 545 of Contemporary Mathematics, pages 195–208. Amer. Math. Soc., 2011
Milman, E.: personal communication
Modica, L.: The gradient of phase transitions and the minimal interface criterion. Arch. Rat. Mech. Anal, 98(2), 123–142 (1987)
Modica, L., Mortola, S.: Il limite nella Г-convergenza di una famiglia di funzionali ellittici (Italian). Boll. Un. Mat. Ital. A (5), 14(3), 526–529 (1977)
Rauch, J.: Five problems: an introduction to the qualitative theory of partial differential equations. In Partial Differential Equations and Related Topics (Program, Tulane Univ., New Orleans, La., 1974) pp. 355–369. Lecture Notes in Math. 446, Springer, Berlin, 1975
Rosales, C., Cañete, A., Bayle, V., et al.: On the isoperimetric problem in Euclidean space with density. Galc. Var. Part. Differ. Equat., 31(1), 27–46 (2008)
Sternberg, P., Zumbrun, K.: Connectivity of phase boundaries in strictly convex domains. Arch. Rat. Mech. Anal., 141, 375–400 (1998)
Sternberg, P., Zumbrun, K.: On the connectivity of boundaries of sets minimizing perimeter subject to a volume constraint. Coram. Anal. Georn,., 7, 199–220 (1999)
Sternberg, P., Zumbrun, K.: A Poincaré inequality with applications to volume-constrained area-minimizing surfaces. J. Reine Angew. Math., 503, 63–85 (1998)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Dedicated to Carlos Kenig on his 65th birthday with great affection
Supported in part by NSF (Grant No. DMS 1500771), a Simons Fellowship, and the Simons Foundation (Grant No. 601948 DJ)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jerison, D. The Two Hyperplane Conjecture. Acta. Math. Sin.-English Ser. 35, 728–748 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10114-019-8241-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10114-019-8241-8