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Michele Marini

Publications and source records attributed to Michele Marini.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Short-time behavior and invariant surfaces for caloric functions with non-constant boundary values

We consider a Cauchy-Dirichlet problem for a heat equation with variable coefficients in non-divergence form. The initial values are assumed to be homogeneous, while the Dirichlet boundary values are non-constant. In this setting, we derive an asymptotic formula for the short-time behavior of the solution, which extends the celebrated Varadhan formula. We stress the fact that the boundary values are allowed to vanish or change sign. The formula is obtained by combining the original ideas of Varadhan with those of Evans and Ishii, pertaining to the theory of viscosity solutions, and some further remarks. In passing, we prove the elliptic counterpart of the formula. This concerns the slow-diffusion behavior of the solutions of the resolvent equation. Furthermore, for the case of the classical Laplace operator, we prove asymptotic formulas for the heat content and the mean value of the solution of the resolvent equation on spheres touching the boundary of the domain. These extend to the case of non-constant boundary values, certain formulas previously obtained by the second author and S. Sakaguchi. The formulas involve the principal curvatures at the touching point and the Dirichlet boundary values. We then use our formulas to describe time-invariant surfaces for the heat equation, in presence of non-constant Dirichlet boundary values. We give two symmetry results in case of non-negative Dirichlet boundary values and a non-existence result, when those values change sign.

math.AP↗
arXiv2022

Closed geodesics on reversible Finsler 2-spheres

We extend two celebrated theorems on closed geodesics of Riemannian 2-spheres to the larger class of reversible Finsler 2-spheres: Lusternik-Schnirelmann's theorem asserting the existence of three simple closed geodesics, and Bangert-Franks-Hingston's theorem asserting the existence of infinitely many closed geodesics. In order to prove the first theorem, we employ the generalization of Grayson's curve shortening flow developed by Angenent-Oaks.

math.DG↗
arXiv2019

The sharp quantitative isocapacitary inequality

We prove a sharp quantitative form of the classical isocapacitary inequality. Namely, we show that the difference between the capacity of a set and that of a ball with the same volume bounds the square of the Fraenkel asymmetry of the set. This provides a positive answer to a conjecture of Hall, Hayman, and Weitsman (J. d' Analyse Math. '91).

math.AP↗
arXiv2015

The Matzoh Ball Soup Problem: a complete characterization

We characterize all the solutions of the heat equation that have their (spatial) equipotential surfaces which do not vary with the time. Such solutions are either isoparametric or split in space-time. The result gives a final answer to a problem raised by M. S. Klamkin, extended by G. Alessandrini, and that was named the Matzoh Ball Soup Problem by L. Zalcman. Similar results can also be drawn for a class of quasi-linear parabolic partial differential equations with coefficients which are homogeneous functions of the gradient variable. This class contains the (isotropic or anisotropic) evolution p-Laplace and normalized p-Laplace equations.

math.AP↗
arXiv2013

Characterization of ellipsoids as K-dense sets

Let K\subset R^N be any convex body containing the origin. A measurable set G\subset R^N with finite and positive Lebesgue measure is said to be K-dense if, for any fixed r>0, the measure of G\cap (x+r K) is constant when x varies on the boundary of G (here, x+r K denotes a translation of a dilation of K). In [6], we proved for the case in which N=2 that if G is K-dense, then both G and K must be homothetic to the same ellipse. Here, we completely characterize K-dense sets in R^N: if G is K-dense, then both G and K must be homothetic to the same ellipsoid. Our proof, by building upon results obtained in [6], relies on an asymptotic formula for the measure of G\cap (x+r K) for large values of the parameter r and a classical characterization of ellipsoids due to C.M. Petty [9].

math.MG↗
arXiv2013

Characterization of ellipses as uniformly dense sets with respect to a family of convex bodies

Let K \subset R^N be a convex body containing the origin. A measurable set G \subset R^N with positive Lebesgue measure is said to be uniformly K-dense if, for any fixed r > 0, the measure of G \cap (x + rK) is constant when x varies on the boundary of G (here, x + rK denotes a translation of a dilation of K). We first prove that G must always be strictly convex and at least C1,1-regular; also, if K is centrally symmetric, K must be strictly convex, C1,1-regular and such that K = G - G up to homotheties; this implies in turn that G must be C2,1- regular. Then for N = 2, we prove that G is uniformly K-dense if and only if K and G are homothetic to the same ellipse. This result was already proven by Amar, Berrone and Gianni in [3]. However, our proof removes their regularity assumptions on K and G and, more importantly, it is susceptible to be generalized to higher dimension since, by the use of Minkowski's inequality and an affine inequality, avoids the delicate computations of the higher-order terms in the Taylor expansion near r = 0 for the measure of G\cap(x+rK) (needed in [3]).

math.MG↗