Self-intersections of closed parametrized minimal surfaces in generic Riemannian manifolds

This article shows that for generic choice of Riemannian metric on a compact oriented manifold M of dimension four, the tangent planes at any self-intersection $$p \in M$$ p ∈ M of any prime closed parametrized minimal surface in M are not simultaneously complex for any orthogonal complex structure on M at p. This implies via geometric measure theory that $$H_2(M;{{\mathbb {Z}}})$$ H 2 ( M ; Z ) is generated by homology classes that are represented by oriented imbedded minimal surfaces.

On the constancy theorem for anisotropic energies through differential inclusions

In this paper we study stationary graphs for functionals of geometric nature defined on currents or varifolds. The point of view we adopt is the one of differential inclusions, introduced in this context in the recent papers (De Lellis et al. in Geometric measure theory and differential inclusions, 2019. arXiv:1910.00335; Tione in Minimal graphs and differential inclusions. Commun Part Differ Equ 7:1–33, 2021). In particular, given a polyconvex integrand f, we define a set of matrices $$C_f$$ C f that allows us to rewrite the stationarity condition for a graph with multiplicity as a differential inclusion. Then we prove that if f is assumed to be non-negative, then in $$C_f$$ C f there is no $$T'_N$$ T N ′ configuration, thus recovering the main result of De Lellis et al. (Geometric measure theory and differential inclusions, 2019. arXiv:1910.00335) as a corollary. Finally, we show that if the hypothesis of non-negativity is dropped, one can not only find $$T'_N$$ T N ′ configurations in $$C_f$$ C f , but it is also possible to construct via convex integration a very degenerate stationary point with multiplicity.

What is a reduced boundary in general relativity?

The concept of boundary plays an important role in several branches of general relativity, e.g. the variational principle for the Einstein equations, the event horizon and the apparent horizon of black holes, the formation of trapped surfaces. On the other hand, in a branch of mathematics known as geometric measure theory, the usefulness has been discovered long ago of yet another concept, i.e. the reduced boundary of a finite-perimeter set. This paper proposes therefore a definition of finite-perimeter sets and their reduced boundary in general relativity. Moreover, a basic integral formula of geometric measure theory is evaluated explicitly in the relevant case of Euclidean Schwarzschild geometry for the first time in the literature. This research prepares the ground for a measure-theoretic approach to several concepts in gravitational physics, supplemented by geometric insight. Moreover, such an investigation suggests considering the possibility that the in–out amplitude for Euclidean quantum gravity should be evaluated over finite-perimeter Riemannian geometries that match the assigned data on their reduced boundary. As a possible application, an analysis is performed of the basic formulae leading eventually to the corrections of the intrinsic quantum mechanical entropy of a black hole.

A Coarea Formulation for Grid-Based Evaluation of Volume Integrals

We present a new method for computing volume integrals based on data sampled on a regular Cartesian grid. We treat the case where the domain is defined implicitly by an inequality, and the input data include sampled values of the defining function and the integrand. The method employs Federer’s coarea formula (Federer, 1969, Geometric Measure Theory, Grundlehren der mathematischen Wissenschaften, Springer) to convert the volume integral to a one-dimensional quadrature over level set values where the integrand is an integral over a level set surface. Application of any standard quadrature method produces an approximation of the integral over the continuous range as a weighted sum of integrals over level sets corresponding to a discrete set of values. The integral over each level set is evaluated using the grid-based approach presented by Yurtoglu et al. (2018, “Treat All Integrals as Volume Integrals: A Unified, Parallel, Grid-Based Method for Evaluation of Volume, Surface, and Path Integrals on Implicitly Defined Domains,” J. Comput. Inf. Sci. Eng., 18, p. 3). The new coarea method fills a need for computing volume integrals whose integrand cannot be written in terms of a vector potential. We present examples with known results, specifically integration of polynomials over the unit sphere. We also present Saye’s (2015, “High-Order Quadrature Methods for Implicitly Defined Surfaces and Volumes in Hyperrectangles,” SIAM J. Sci. Comput., 37) example of integrating a logarithmic integrand over the intersection of a bounding box with an open domain implicitly defined by a trigonometric polynomial. For the final examples, the input data is a grid of mixture ratios from a direct numerical simulation of fluid mixing, and we demonstrate that the grid-based coarea method applies to computing volume integrals when no analytical form of the implicit defining function is given. The method is highly parallelizable, and the results presented are obtained using a parallel implementation capable of producing results at interactive rates.

A Geometric Measure Theory Approach to Identify Complex Structural Features of Soft Matter Surfaces

The structural features that protrude above or below a soft matter interface are well-known to be related to interfacially mediated chemical reactivity and transport processes. It is a challenge to develop a robust algorithm for identifying these organized surface structures, as the morphology can be highly varied and they may exist on top of an interface containing significant interfacial roughness. A new algorithm that employs concepts from geometric measure theory, algebraic topology, and optimization, is developed to identify candidate structures at a soft matter surface, and then using a probabilistic approach, to rank their likelihood of being a complex structural feature. The algorithm is tested for a surfactant laden water/oil interface, where it is robust to identifying protrusions responsible for water transport against a set identified by visual inspection. To our knowledge, this is the first example of applying geometric measure theory to analyze the properties of a chemical/materials science system.