Quantitative $C^1$-stability of spheres in rank one symmetric spaces of non-compact type

Abstract

We prove that in any rank one symmetric space of non-compact type $M\in\{\mathbb{R} H^n,\mathbb{C} H^m,\mathbb{H} H^m,\mathbb{O} H^2\}$, geodesic spheres are uniformly quantitatively stable with respect to small $C^1$-volume preserving perturbations. We quantify the gain of perimeter in terms of the $W^{1,2}$-norm of the perturbation, taking advantage of the explicit spectral gap of the Laplacian on geodesic spheres in $M$. As a consequence, we give a quantitative proof that for small volumes, geodesic spheres are isoperimetric regions among all sets of finite perimeter.