On the classification of Serrin planar domains

Abstract

We show that all smooth ring domains $\Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^2$ that admit a solution to Serrin's classical problem $\Delta u+2=0$ with locally constant overdetermined boundary conditions along $\partial \Omega$ can be described as algebro-geometric potentials of the mKdV hierarchy. The same result holds for periodic unbounded domains with two boundary components. In particular, any such domain is determined by suitable holomorphic data in some algebraic curve. As a consequence, the space of all Serrin ring domains, or periodic Serrin bands, can be ordered into a sequence of finite-dimensional complexity levels. By studying the first non-trivial level, given by elliptic functions, we construct: $(i)$ a global $1$-parameter family of periodic solutions to Serrin's problem that interpolates between a flat band and a chain of disks along an axis, following an unduloid pattern, and $(ii)$ for any $n>1$, a two-dimensional moduli space ${\bf T}_n$ of non-radial Serrin ring domains with a dihedral symmetry group of order $2n$. This moduli space ${\bf T}_n$ is geometrically a triangle, and has radial bands on one side of ${\bf T}_n$, and a necklace of $n$ pairwise tangent disks distributed along the unit circle at its opposite vertex in ${\bf T}_n$.