English

A geometric problem and the Hopf Lemma. II

Analysis of PDEs 2007-05-23 v2 Differential Geometry

Abstract

A classical result of A.D. Alexandrov states that a connected compact smooth nn-dimensional manifold without boundary, embedded in Rn+1\Bbb R^{n+1}, and such that its mean curvature is constant, is a sphere. Here we study the problem of symmetry of MM in a hyperplane Xn+1=X_{n+1}=constant in case MM satisfies: for any two points (X,Xn+1)(X', X_{n+1}), (X,X^n+1)(X', \hat X_{n+1}) on MM, with Xn+1>X^n+1X_{n+1}>\hat X_{n+1}, the mean curvature at the first is not greater than that at the second. Symmetry need not always hold, but in this paper, we establish it under some additional conditions. Some variations of the Hopf Lemma are also presented. Several open problems are described. Part I dealt with corresponding one dimensional problems.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math/0601704,
  title  = {A geometric problem and the Hopf Lemma. II},
  author = {YanYan Li and Louis Nirenberg},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0601704},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

corrected 3 typo

R2 v1 2026-07-22T17:30:44.953Z