English

On the stability for Alexandrov's Soap Bubble theorem

Analysis of PDEs 2017-04-07 v2 Differential Geometry

Abstract

Alexandrov's Soap Bubble theorem dates back to 19581958 and states that a compact embedded hypersurface in RN\mathbb{R}^N with constant mean curvature must be a sphere. For its proof, A.D. Alexandrov invented his reflection priciple. In 19821982, R. Reilly gave an alternative proof, based on integral identities and inequalities, connected with the torsional rigidity of a bar. In this article we study the stability of the spherical symmetry: the question is how much a hypersurface is near to a sphere, when its mean curvature is near to a constant in some norm. We present a stability estimate that states that a compact hypersurface ΓRN\Gamma\subset\mathbb{R}^N can be contained in a spherical annulus whose interior and exterior radii, say ρi\rho_i and ρe\rho_e, satisfy the inequality ρeρiCHH0L1(Γ)τN, \rho_e - \rho_i \le C \Vert H - H_0 \Vert^{\tau_N}_{L^1 (\Gamma)}, where τN=1/2\tau_N=1/2 if N=2,3N=2, 3, and τN=1/(N+2)\tau_N=1/(N+2) if N4N\ge 4. Here, HH is the mean curvature of Γ\Gamma, H0H_0 is some reference constant and CC is a constant that depends on some geometrical and spectral parameters associated with Γ\Gamma. This estimate improves previous results in the literature under various aspects. We also present similar estimates for some related overdetermined problems.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1610.07036,
  title  = {On the stability for Alexandrov's Soap Bubble theorem},
  author = {Rolando Magnanini and Giorgio Poggesi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1610.07036},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

20 pages, dedicated to prof. Shigeru Sakaguchi on the occasion of his $60^{th}$ birthday. The paper has been accepted by Journal d'Analyse Math\'ematiques. This amended version incorporates referee's suggestions

R2 v1 2026-06-22T16:28:26.782Z