Stable s-minimal cones in ℝ3 are flat for s ~ 1

We prove that half spaces are the only stable nonlocal s-minimal cones in {\mathbb{R}^{3}}, for {s\in(0,1)} sufficiently close to 1. This is the first classification result of stable s-minimal cones in dimension higher than two. Its proof cannot rely on a compactness argument perturbing from {s=1}. In fact, our proof gives a quantifiable value for the required closeness of s to 1. We use the geometric formula for the second variation of the fractional s-perimeter, which involves a squared nonlocal second fundamental form, as well as the recent BV estimates for stable nonlocal minimal sets.