On the relative isoperimetric problem for the cube

Abstract

In this article, we solve the relative isoperimetric problem in $[0,1]^3$ for orthogonal polyhedra. Up to isometries of the cube or sets of measure $0$, the minimizers are of the form $[0,\epsilon]^3$, $[0,\epsilon]^2 \times [0,1]$, or $[0,\epsilon] \times [0,1]^2$ for some $\epsilon > 0$. This should be compared to the conjectured minimizers for the unconstrained relative isoperimetric problem in $[0,1]^3$, which are (up to isometries and sets of measure $0$) of the form $\left( B^3(\epsilon) \right) \cap [0,1]^3$, $\left( B^2(\epsilon) \times [0,1] \right) \cap [0,1]^3$, or $[0,\epsilon] \times [0,1]^2$ for some $\epsilon > 0$. Here, $B^k(\epsilon)$ is the closed ball in $\mathbb{R}^k$ of radius $\epsilon$ centered at the origin.