Rigidity results for the capillary overdetermined problem

Abstract

In this paper we obtain rigidity results for bounded positive solutions of the general capillary overdetermined problem \begin{equation} \left\{ \begin{array} {ll} \mathrm{div} \left(\frac{\nabla u}{\sqrt{1+|\nabla u|^2}}\right) + f(u) = 0 & \mbox{in }\; \Omega,\\[1mm] u= 0 & \mbox{on }\; \partial \Omega,\\[1mm] \partial_{\nu} u=\kappa &\mbox{on }\; \partial \Omega, \end{array}\right. \end{equation} where $f$ is a given $C^1$ function in $\mathbb{R}$, $\nu$ is the exterior unit normal, $\kappa$ is a constant and $\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^n$ is a $C^1$ domain. Our main theorem states that if $n=2, \kappa\neq 0$, $\partial \Omega$ is unbounded and connected, $|\nabla u|$ is bounded and there exists a nonpositive primitive $F$ of $f$ such that $F(0)\geq \left(1+\kappa^2\right)^{-\frac12} -1$, then $\Omega$ must be a half-plane and $u$ is a parallel solution. In other words, under our assumptions, if a capillary graph has the property that its mean curvature depends only on the height, then it is the graph of a one dimensional function. We also prove the boundedness of the gradient of solutions of the above problem when $f'(u) <0$. Moreover we study a Modica type estimate for the above overdetermined problem that allows us to prove that, unless $\Omega$ is a half-space, the mean curvature of $\partial \Omega$ is strictly negative under the assumption that $\kappa\neq 0$ and there exists a nonpositive primitive $F$ of $f$ such that $F(0)\geq \left(1+\kappa^2\right)^{-\frac12} -1$. Our results have an interesting physical application to the classical capillary overdetermined problem, i.e., the case where $f$ is linear.