Serrin's Problem under Dirichlet Perturbations: Geometric Compactness and Sharp Planar Stability
In earlier work [21], we posed a stability question for Serrin's overdetermined problem under Dirichlet perturbations and proved that the answer is negative in dimensions $n\ge3$. Here we resolve the question in the planar convex class and obtain a sharp quantitative theory without any a priori geometric nondegeneracy. Let $u_Ω$ solve \[ -Δu_Ω=1\ \text{in }Ω,\qquad \partial_νu_Ω=-\frac{|Ω|}{P(Ω)}\ \text{on }\partialΩ, \qquad \int_{\partialΩ}u_Ω\,dσ=0, \] and set $O(Ω):=\text{osc}_{\partial Ω}u_Ω$. We construct fixed-area annuli with $O(Ω_k)\to0$ that remain far from every disk, showing that convexity is essential in dimension two. By contrast, if $Ω_k\subset\mathbb R^2$ are convex, $|Ω_k|=π$, and $O(Ω_k)\to0$, then, up to translations, $Ω_k$ converges in Hausdorff distance to the unit disk. Moreover, \[ R_Ω-r_Ω+\inf_{z\in\mathbb R^2}d_H(Ω,B_1(z)) \le C\,O(Ω) \] for all planar convex $Ω$ with $|Ω|=π$ and sufficiently small $O(Ω)$, and the linear order is optimal. The proof combines a new mechanism excluding long-thin degeneration, the rough-domain Serrin rigidity theorem of Figalli--Zhang, new tangential-gradient and linear boundary-growth estimates, a boundary $P$-function estimate, and the reverse-Serrin identity of Magnanini--Molinarolo--Poggesi. We also study the weaker deficit \[ A(Ω):=\frac1{P(Ω)}\int_{\partialΩ}u_Ω,dσ-\min_{\partialΩ}u_Ω. \] In the planar convex class, $A(Ω_k)\to0$ still forces convergence to a disk, and \[ R_Ω-r_Ω+\inf_z d_H(Ω,B_1(z)) \le C A(Ω)^{2/3} \] for $|Ω|=π$ and sufficiently small $A(Ω)$.