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The Allen–Cahn equation is a semilinear PDE which is deeply linked to the theory of minimal hypersurfaces via a singular limit. We prove curvature estimates and strong sheet separation estimates for stable solutions (building on recent work of Wang–Wei) of the Allen-Cahn equation on a 3-manifold. Using these, we are able to show that for generic metrics on a 3-manifold, minimal surfaces arising from Allen–Cahn solutions with bounded energy and bounded Morse index are two-sided and occur with multiplicity one and the expected Morse index. This confirms, in the Allen–Cahn setting, a strong form of the multiplicity one-conjecture and the index lower bound conjecture of Marques–Neves in 3-dimensions regarding min-max constructions of minimal surfaces. Allen–Cahn min-max constructions were recently carried out by Guaraco and Gaspar–Guaraco. Our resolution of the multiplicity-one and the index lower bound conjectures shows that these constructions can be applied to give a new proof of Yau's conjecture on infinitely many minimal surfaces in a 3-manifold with a generic metric (recently proven by Irie–Marques–Neves) with new geometric conclusions. Namely, we prove that a 3-manifold with a generic metric contains, for every p = 1, 2, 3,…, a two-sided embedded minimal surface with Morse index p and area ~ p13, as conjectured by Marques-Neves.
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Existence of hypersurfaces with prescribed mean curvature I – generic min-max
We prove that, for a generic set of smooth prescription functions h on a closed ambient manifold, there always exists a nontrivial, smooth, closed hypersurface of prescribed mean curvature h. The solution is either an embedded minimal hypersurface with integer multiplicity, or a non-minimal almost embedded hypersurface of multiplicity one. More precisely, we show that our previous min-max theory, developed for constant mean curvature hypersurfaces, can be extended to construct min-max prescribed mean curvature hypersurfaces for certain classes of prescription function, including a generic set of smooth functions, and all nonzero analytic functions. In particular we do not need to assume that h has a sign.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1811293
- PAR ID:
- 10169770
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Cambridge journal of mathematics
- Volume:
- 8
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 2168-0930
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 311 – 362
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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