Soap bubbles and convex cones: optimal quantitative rigidity

Abstract

We consider a class of rigidity results in a convex cone $\Sigma \subseteq \mathbb{R}^N$. These include overdetermined Serrin-type problems for a mixed boundary value problem relative to $\Sigma$, Alexandrov's soap bubble-type results relative to $\Sigma$, and a Heintze-Karcher's inequality relative to $\Sigma$. Each rigidity result is obtained by means of a single integral identity and holds true under weak integral conditions. Optimal quantitative stability estimates are obtained in terms of an $L^2$-pseudodistance. In particular, the optimal stability estimate for Heintze-Karcher's inequality is new even in the classical case $\Sigma = \mathbb{R}^N$. Stability bounds in terms of the Hausdorff distance are also provided. Several new results are established and exploited, including a new Poincar\'e-type inequality for vector fields whose normal components vanish on a portion of the boundary and an explicit (possibly weighted) trace theory -- relative to the cone $\Sigma$ -- for harmonic functions satisfying a homogeneous Neumann condition on the portion of the boundary contained in $\partial \Sigma$. We also introduce new notions of uniform interior and exterior sphere conditions relative to the cone $\Sigma \subseteq \mathbb{R}^N$, which allow to obtain (via barrier arguments) uniform lower and upper bounds for the gradient in the mixed boundary value-setting. In the particular case $\Sigma = \mathbb{R}^N$, these conditions return the classical uniform interior and exterior sphere conditions (together with the associated classical gradient bounds of the Dirichlet setting).