English

Some geometric relations for equipotential curves

Differential Geometry 2025-04-15 v3 Mathematical Physics Analysis of PDEs math.MP Probability

Abstract

Let U(r),rΩR2U(\boldsymbol r),\boldsymbol r\in\Omega\subset \mathbb R^2 be a harmonic function that solves an exterior Dirichlet problem. If all the level sets of U(r),rΩU(\boldsymbol r),\boldsymbol r\in\Omega are smooth Jordan curves, then there are several geometric inequalities that correlate the curvature κ(r)\kappa(\boldsymbol r) with the magnitude of gradient U(r) |\nabla U(\boldsymbol r)| on each level set ("equipotential curve"). One of such inequalities is [κ(r)κ(r)][U(r)U(r)]0 \langle [\kappa(\boldsymbol r)-\langle\kappa(\boldsymbol r)\rangle][|\nabla U(\boldsymbol r)|-\langle |\nabla U(\boldsymbol r)|\rangle]\rangle\geq0, where \langle \cdot\rangle denotes average over a level set, weighted by the arc length of the Jordan curve. We prove such a geometric inequality by constructing an entropy for each level set U(r)=φU(\boldsymbol r)=\varphi , and showing that such an entropy is convex in φ\varphi. The geometric inequality for κ(r)\kappa(\boldsymbol r) and U(r) |\nabla U(\boldsymbol r)| then follows from the convexity and monotonicity of our entropy formula. A few other geometric relations for equipotential curves are also built on a convexity argument.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1912.11669,
  title  = {Some geometric relations for equipotential curves},
  author = {Yajun Zhou},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1912.11669},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

(v1) 12 pages, 1 TikZ figure; (v2) 14 pages, 1 TikZ figure. New results added. Typos corrected; (v3) 14 pages, 1 table, 1 TikZ figure. Revised according to reviewer's comments

R2 v1 2026-06-23T12:56:24.348Z