A singular local minimizer for the volume- constrained minimal surface problem in a nonconvex domain

Abstract:

It has recently been established by Wang and Xia that local minimizers of perimeter within a ball subject to a volume constraint must be spherical caps or planes through the origin. This verifies a conjecture of the authors and is in contrast to the situation of area-minimizing surfaces with prescribed boundary where singularities can be present in high dimensions. This result lends support to the more general conjecture that volume-constrained minimizers in arbitrary convex sets may enjoy better regularity properties than their boundary-prescribed cousins. Here, we show the importance of the convexity condition by exhibiting a simple example, given by the Simons cone, of a singular volume-constrained locally area-minimizing surface within a nonconvex domain that is arbitrarily close to the unit ball.