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We consider the Cauchy problem for the heat diffusion equation in the whole Euclidean space consisting of two media locally with different constant conductivities, where initially one medium has temperature 0 and the other has temperature 1. Under the assumption that a part of the interface between two media with different constant conductivities is of class $C^2$ in a neighborhood of a point $x$ on it, we extract the mean curvature of the interface at $x$ from the initial behavior of temperature at $x$. This result is purely local in space. As a corollary, when the whole Euclidean space consists of two media globally with different constant conductivities, it is shown that if a connected component $\Gamma$ of the interface is of class $C^2$ and is stationary isothermic, then the mean curvature of $\Gamma$ must be constant. Moreover, we apply this result to some overdetermined problems for two-phase heat conductors and obtain some symmetry theorems., Comment: The revised version has 19 pages (3 pages shorter than the previous one) and it deals with the parabolic problem directly without use of the Laplace-Stieljes transform and a Tauberian theorem. The main theorem (Theorem 1.1) becomes much better than that in the previous version

Neumann eigenvalues being non-decreasing with respect to domain inclusion, it makes sense to study the two shape optimization problems $\min\{\mu_k(\Omega):\Omega \mbox{ convex},\Omega \subset D, \}$ (for a given box $D$) and $\max\{\mu_k(\Omega):\Omega \mbox{ convex},\omega \subset \Omega, \}$ (for a given obstacle $\omega$). In this paper, we study existence of a solution for these two problems in two dimensions and we give some qualitative properties. We also introduce the notion of {\it self-domains} that are domains solutions of these extremal problems for themselves and give examples of the disk and the square. A few numerical simulations are also presented.

We establish symmetry results for two categories of overdetermined obstacle problems: a Serrin-type problem and a two-phase problem under the overdetermination that the interface serves as a level surface of the solution. The first proof avoids the method of moving planes; instead, it leverages the comparison principle and the fact that the solution of the obstacle problem is superharmonic within its domain. The second proof utilizes a suitable version of Serrin's method of moving planes., Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures

We study the spatial critical points of the solutions $u=u(x,t)$ of the fractional heat equation. For the Cauchy problem, we show that the origin $0$ satisfies $\nabla_x u(0,t) = 0$ for $t>0$ if and only if the initial data satisfy a balance law of the form $\int_{\mathbb{S}^{N-1}} \omega u_0(r\omega) \, \mathrm{d} \omega=0$ for a. e. $r \ge 0$. Moreover, for the Dirichlet initial-boundary value problem, we prove two symmetry results: $\Omega$ is a ball centered at the origin if and only if $\nabla_x u(0,t) = 0$ for $t>0$ provided that the initial data satisfies the above-mentioned balance law; $\Omega$ is centrosymmetric if and only if $\nabla_x u(0,t) = 0$ for $t>0$ provided that the initial data is centrosymmetric. These results extend some theorems obtained by Magnanini and Sakaguchi in 1997-1999 for the (local) heat equation to the fractional context. These extensions are nontrivial because of the nonlocal nature of the fractional Laplacian. Among others, the proof of the characterization of a ball in the Dirichlet initial-boundary value problem for the fractional heat flow not only works for the classical heat flow but also gives a new insight into the problem., Comment: 19 pages

We consider the Cauchy problem for the heat diffusion equation in the whole Euclidean space consisting of two media with different constant conductivities, where initially one medium has temperature 0 and the other has temperature 1. Under the assumptions that one medium is bounded and the interface is of class $C^{2,\alpha}$, we show that if the interface is stationary isothermic, then it must be a sphere. The method of moving planes due to Serrin is directly utilized to prove the result., Comment: 8 pages

We consider the principal eigenvalue problem for the Laplace-Beltrami operator on the upper half of a topological torus under the Dirichlet boundary condition. We present a construction of the upper half of a topological torus that admits the principal eigenfunction having exact numbers of critical points. Furthermore, we manage to identify the locations of all the critical points of the principal eigenfunction explicitly., Comment: 13 pages

We consider the Cauchy problem for the heat diffusion equation in the whole Euclidean space consisting of two media with different constant conductivities. The large time behavior of temperature, the solution of the problem, is studied when initially temperature is assigned to be 0 on one medium and $1$ on the other. We show that under a certain geometric condition of the configuration of the media, temperature is stabilized to a constant as time tends to infinity. We also show by examples that temperature in general oscillates and is not stabilized., Comment: 9 pages, to appear in Journal of Differential Equations

We study the existence of critical points of stable stationary solutions to reaction-diffusion problems on topological tori. Stable nonconstant stationary solutions are often called patterns. We construct topological tori and patterns with prescribed numbers of critical points whose locations are explicit., Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures

This paper deals with a variation of the classical isoperimetric problem in dimension $N\ge 2$ for a two-phase piecewise constant density whose discontinuity interface is a given hyperplane. We introduce a weighted perimeter functional with three different weights, one for the hyperplane and one for each of the two open half-spaces in which $\mathbb{R}^N$ gets partitioned. We then consider the problem of characterizing the sets $\Omega$ that minimize this weighted perimeter functional under the additional constraint that the volumes of the portions of $\Omega$ in the two half-spaces are given. It is shown that the problem admits two kinds of minimizers, which will be called type I and type II, respectively. These minimizers are made of the union of two spherical domes whose angle of incidence satisfies some kind of \textquotedblleft Snell's law\textquotedblright. Finally, we provide a complete classification of the minimizers depending on the various parameters of the problem., Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures

An inclusion is said to be neutral to uniform fields if upon insertion into a homogenous medium with a uniform field it does not perturb the uniform field at all. It is said to be weakly neutral if it perturbs the uniform field mildly. Such inclusions are of interest in relation to invisibility cloaking and effective medium theory. There have been some attempts lately to construct or to show existence of such inclusions in the form of core-shell structure or a single inclusion with the imperfect bonding parameter attached to its boundary. The purpose of this paper is to review recent progress in such attempts. We also discuss about the over-determined problem for confocal ellipsoids which is closely related with the neutral inclusion, and its equivalent formulation in terms of Newtonian potentials. The main body of this paper consists of reviews on known results, but some new results are also included., Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures

We consider reaction-diffusion equations on closed surfaces in $\mathbb R^3$ having genus $1$. Stable nonconstant stationary solutions are often called patterns. The purpose of this paper is to construct closed surfaces together with patterns having as many critical points as one wants., Comment: 17 pages

The polarization tensor is a geometric quantity associated with a domain. It is a signature of the small inclusion's existence inside a domain and used in the small volume expansion method to reconstruct small inclusions by boundary measurements. In this paper, we consider the question of the polarization tensor vanishing structure of general shape. The only known examples of the polarization tensor vanishing structure are concentric disks and balls. We prove, by the implicit function theorem on Banach spaces, that a small perturbation of a ball can be enclosed by a domain so that the resulting inclusion of the core-shell structure becomes polarization tensor vanishing. The boundary of the enclosing domain is given by a sphere perturbed by spherical harmonics of degree zero and two. This is a continuation of the earlier work \cite{KLS2D} for two dimensions., Comment: 27 pages

We consider the Cauchy problem for the heat diffusion equation in the whole Euclidean space consisting of two media with different constant conductivities, where initially one has temperature 0 and the other has temperature 1. Suppose that the interface is uniformly of class $C^6$. We show that if the interface has a time-invariant constant temperature, then it must be a hyperplane., Comment: 19 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1905.12380

We consider the Cauchy problem for the heat diffusion equation in the whole space consisting of three layers with different constant conductivities, where initially the upper and middle layers have temperature 0 and the lower layer has temperature 1. Under some appropriate conditions, it is shown that, if either the interface between the lower layer and the middle layer is a stationary isothermic surface or there is a stationary isothermic surface in the middle layer near the lower layer, then the two interfaces must be parallel hyperplanes. Similar propositions hold true, either if a stationary isothermic surface is replaced by a surface with the constant flow property or if the Cauchy problem is replaced by an appropriate initial-boundary value problem., Comment: 32 pages, to appear in Journal de Math\'ematiques Pures et Appliqu\'ees

A two dimensional inclusion of core-shell structure is neutral to multiple uniform fields if and only if the core and the shell are concentric disks, provided that the conductivity of the matrix is isotropic. An inclusion is said to be neutral if upon its insertion the uniform field is not perturbed at all. In this paper we consider inclusions of core-shell structure of general shape which are weakly neutral to multiple uniform fields. An inclusion is said to be weakly neutral if the field perturbation is mild. We show, by an implicit function theorem, that if the core is a small perturbation of a disk then we can coat it by a shell so that the resulting structure becomes weakly neutral to multiple uniform fields.

A strong comparison principle for semicontinuous viscosity solutions of the prescribed mean curvature equation is considered. The difficulties of the problem come from the fact that this nonlinear equation is non-uniformly elliptic, does not depend on the value of unknown functions, depends on spatial variables and solutions are semicontinuous. Our simple proof of the strong comparison principle consists only of three ingredients, the definition of viscosity solutions, the inf and sup convolutions of functions, and the theory of classical solutions of quasilinear elliptic equations. Once we have the strong comparison principle, we can prove a weak comparison principle for semicontinuous viscosity solutions of the prescribed mean curvature equation in a bounded domain., Comment: 13 pages

We consider a two-phase heat conductor in $\mathbb R^N$ with $N \geq 2$ consisting of a core and a shell with different constant conductivities. We study the role played by radial symmetry for overdetermined problems of elliptic and parabolic type. First of all, with the aid of the implicit function theorem, we give a counterexample to radial symmetry for some two-phase elliptic overdetermined boundary value problems of Serrin-type. Afterwards, we consider the following setting for a two-phase parabolic overdetermined problem. We suppose that, initially, the conductor has temperature 0 and, at all times, its boundary is kept at temperature 1. A hypersurface in the domain has the constant flow property if at every of its points the heat flux across surface only depends on time. It is shown that the structure of the conductor must be spherical, if either there is a surface of the constant flow property in the shell near the boundary or a connected component of the boundary of the heat conductor is a surface of the constant flow property. Also, by assuming that the medium outside the conductor has a possibly different conductivity, we consider a Cauchy problem in which the conductor has initial inside temperature $0$ and outside temperature $1$. We then show that a quite similar symmetry result holds true., Comment: 36 pages, 3 figures

We consider a two-phase heat conductor in two dimensions consisting of a core and a shell with different constant conductivities. When the medium outside the two-phase conductor has a possibly different conductivity, we consider the Cauchy problem in two dimensions where initially the conductor has temperature 0 and the outside medium has temperature 1. It is shown that, if there is a stationary isothermic surface in the shell near the boundary, then the structure of the conductor must be circular. Moreover, as by-products of the method of the proof, we mention other proofs of all the previous results of the author in $N(\ge 2)$ dimensions and two theorems on their related two-phase elliptic overdetermined problems., Comment: 21 pages. to appear in RIMS K\^{o}ky\^{u}roku Bessatsu. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1603.04004

We consider a two-phase heat conductor in $\mathbb R^N$ with $N \geq 2$ consisting of a core and a shell with different constant conductivities. Suppose that, initially, the conductor has temperature 0 and, at all times, its boundary is kept at temperature 1. It is shown that, if there is a stationary isothermic surface in the shell near the boundary, then the structure of the conductor must be spherical. Also, when the medium outside the two-phase conductor has a possibly different conductivity, we consider the Cauchy problem with $N \ge 3$ and the initial condition where the conductor has temperature 0 and the outside medium has temperature 1. Then we show that almost the same proposition holds true., Comment: 21 pages, to appear in Rendiconti dell'Istituto di Matematica dell'Universit\`a di Trieste

Let $S$ be a smooth hypersurface properly embedded in $\mathbb R^N$ with $N \geq 3$ and consider its tubular neighborhood $\mathcal N$. We show that, if a heat flow over $\mathcal N$ with appropriate initial and boundary conditions has $S$ as a stationary isothermic surface, then $S$ must have some sort of symmetry., Comment: 9 pages, to appear in Springer Proceedings in Mathematics & Statistics

We consider the neutral inclusion problem in three dimensions which is to prove if a coated structure consisting of a core and a shell is neutral to all uniform fields, then the core and the shell must be concentric balls if the matrix is isotropic and confocal ellipsoids if the matrix is anisotropic. We first derive an over-determined boundary value problem in the shell of the neutral inclusion, and then prove in the isotropic case that if the over- determined problem admits a solution, then the core and the shell must be concentric balls. As a consequence it is proved that the structure is neutral to all uniform fields if and only if it consists of concentric balls provided that the coefficient of the core is larger than that of the shell.

Let $\Omega$ be a domain in $\mathbb R^3$ with $\partial\Omega = \partial\left(\mathbb R^3\setminus \overline{\Omega}\right)$, where $\partial\Omega$ is unbounded and connected, and let $u$ be the solution of the Cauchy problem for the heat equation $\partial_t u= \Delta u$ over $\mathbb R^3,$ where the initial data is the characteristic function of the set $\Omega^c = \mathbb R^3\setminus \Omega$. We show that, if there exists a stationary isothermic surface $\Gamma$ of $u$ with $\Gamma \cap \partial\Omega = \varnothing$, then both $\partial\Omega$ and $\Gamma$ must be either parallel planes or co-axial circular cylinders . This theorem completes the classification of stationary isothermic surfaces in the case that $\Gamma\cap\partial\Omega=\varnothing$ and $\partial\Omega$ is unbounded. To prove this result, we establish a similar theorem for {\it uniformly dense domains } in $\mathbb R^3$, a notion that was introduced by Magnanini, Prajapat \& Sakaguchi in \cite{MPS2006tams}. In the proof, we use methods from the theory of surfaces with constant mean curvature, combined with a careful analysis of certain asymptotic expansions and a surprising connection with the theory of transnormal functions., Comment: 31 pages

Let $\Omega$ be a domain in $\mathbb R^N$, where $N \ge 2$ and $\partial\Omega$ is not necessarily bounded. We consider two fast diffusion equations $\partial_t u= \mbox{div}(|\nabla u|^{p-2}{\nabla u})$ and $\partial_t u= \Delta u^{m}$, where $1 \frac {(N+1)(2-p)}{2p}$ or $\alpha > \frac {(N+1)(1-m)}{4}$. Then, we derive asymptotic estimates for the integral of $u^\alpha$ over $B$ for short times in terms of principal curvatures of $\partial\Omega$ at the point, which tells us about the interaction between fast diffusion and geometry of domain., Comment: 23 pages, to appear in Kodai Math. J

In this paper we consider the overdetermined Cauchy problem for the heat equation. We prove that if the problem has a nontrivial nonnegative solution with a certain sequence of similar level sets, then the solution must be radially symmetric.

Positive solutions of homogeneous Dirichlet boundary value problems or initial-value problems for certain elliptic or parabolic equations must be radially symmetric and monotone in the radial direction if just one of their level surfaces is parallel to the boundary of the domain. Here, for the elliptic case, we prove the stability counterpart of that result. In fact, we show that if the solution is almost constant on a surface at a fixed distance from the boundary, then the domain is almost radially symmetric, in the sense that is contained in and contains two concentric balls $B_{r_e}$ and $B_{r_i}$, with the difference $r_e-r_i$ (linearly) controlled by a suitable norm of the deviation of the solution from a constant. The proof relies on and enhances arguments developed in a paper by Aftalion, Busca and Reichel.

We consider the functional $$I_\Omega(v) = \int_\Omega [f(|Dv|) - v] dx,$$ where $\Omega$ is a bounded domain and $f$ is a convex function. Under general assumptions on $f$, G. Crasta [Cr1] has shown that if $I_\Omega$ admits a minimizer in $W_0^{1,1}(\Omega)$ depending only on the distance from the boundary of $\Omega$, then $\Omega$ must be a ball. With some restrictions on $f$, we prove that spherical symmetry can be obtained only by assuming that the minimizer has one level surface parallel to the boundary (i.e. it has only a level surface in common with the distance). We then discuss how these results extend to more general settings, in particular to functionals that are not differentiable and to solutions of fully nonlinear elliptic and parabolic equations.

We consider an entire graph $S$ in $\mathbb R^{N+1}$ of a continuous real function $f$ over $\mathbb R^{N}$ with $N\ge 1$. Let $\Omega$ be an unbounded domain in $\mathbb R^{N+1}$ with boundary $S$. Consider nonlinear diffusion equations of the form $\partial_t U= \Delta \phi(U)$ containing the heat equation. Let $U$ be the solution of either the initial-boundary value problem over $\Omega$ where the initial value equals zero and the boundary value equals 1, or the Cauchy problem where the initial data is the characteristic function of the set $\mathbb R^{N+1}\setminus \Omega$. The problem we consider is to characterize $S$ in such a way that there exists a stationary level surface of $U$ in $\Omega$. We introduce a new class $\mathcal A$ of entire graphs $S$ and, by using the sliding method, we show that $S\in\mathcal A$ must be a hyperplane if there exists a stationary level surface of $U$ in $\Omega$. This is an improvement of the previous result. Next, we consider the heat equation in particular and we introduce the class $\mathcal B$ of entire graphs $S$ of functions $f$ such that each ${|f(x)-f(y)|: |x-y| \le 1}$ is bounded. With the help of the theory of viscosity solutions, we show that $S \in \mathcal B$ must be a hyperplane if there exists a stationary isothermic surface of $U$ in $\Omega$. This is a considerable improvement of the previous result. Related to the problem, we consider a class $\mathcal W$ of Weingarten hypersurfaces in $\mathbb R^{N+1}$ with $N \ge 1$. Then we show that, if $S$ belongs to $\mathcal W$ in the viscosity sense and $S$ satisfies some natural geometric condition, then $S \in \mathcal B$ must be a hyperplane. This is also a considerable improvement of the previous result., Comment: In this revised version the condition that ${|f(x)|/(1+|x|) : x \in \mathbb R^N}$ is bounded (in the previous version) was replaced with the stronger condition that ${|f(x)-f(y)| : |x-y| \le 1}$ is bounded, since the previous condition is not enough to guarantee the existence of the limits $f_\infty$ and $g_\infty$ in the proof of Theorem 1.3

We consider nonlinear diffusion equations of the form $\partial_t u= \Delta \phi(u)$ in $\mathbb R^N$ with $N \ge 2.$ When $\phi(s) \equiv s$, this is just the heat equation. Let $\Omega$ be a domain in $\mathbb R^N$, where $\partial\Omega$ is bounded and $\partial\Omega = \partial (\mathbb R^N\setminus \bar {\Omega})$. We consider the initial-boundary value problem, where the initial value equals zero and the boundary value equals 1, and the Cauchy problem where the initial data is the characteristic function of the set $\Omega^c = \mathbb R^N\setminus \Omega$. We settle the boundary regularity issue for the characterization of the sphere as a stationary level surface of the solution $u:$ no regularity assumption is needed for $\partial\Omega.$, Comment: 16 pages; no figures. Added an appendix with the proof of Theorem B, to make the paper self-contained. Some other minor modifications

Let $\Omega$ be a domain in $\mathbb R^N$, where $N \ge 2$ and $\partial\Omega$ is not necessarily bounded. We consider nonlinear diffusion equations of the form $\partial_t u= \Delta \phi(u)$. Let $u=u(x,t)$ be the solution of either the initial-boundary value problem over $\Omega$, where the initial value equals zero and the boundary value equals 1, or the Cauchy problem where the initial data is the characteristic function of the set $\mathbb R^N\setminus \Omega$. We consider an open ball $B$ in $\Omega$ whose closure intersects $\partial\Omega$ only at one point, and we derive asymptotic estimates for the content of substance in $B$ for short times in terms of geometry of $\Omega$. Also, we obtain a characterization of the hyperplane involving a stationary level surface of $u$ by using the sliding method due to Berestycki, Caffarelli, and Nirenberg. These results tell us about interactions between nonlinear diffusion and geometry of domain., Comment: 25 pages, no figures. Added some details to introduction. A couple of small changes. To appear in Journal Diff. Eqs

We consider nonlinear diffusion of some substance in a container (not necessarily bounded) with bounded boundary of class C^2. Suppose that, initially, the container is empty and, at all times, the substance at its boundary is kept at density 1. We show that, if the container contains a proper C^2-subdomain on whose boundary the substance has constant density at each given time, then the boundary of the container must be a sphere. We also consider nonlinear diffusion in the whole R^N of some substance whose density is initially a characteristic function of the complement of a domain with bounded C^2 boundary, and obtain similar results. These results are also extended to the heat flow in the sphere S^N and the hyperbolic space H^N., Comment: 26 pages

We consider an entire graph S of a continuous real function over (N-1)-dimensional Euclidean space with N larger than or equal to 3. Let D be a domain in N-dimensional Euclidean space with S as a boundary. Consider in D the heat flow with initial temperature 0 and boundary temperature 1. The problem we consider is to characterize S in such a way that there exists a stationary isothermic surface in D. We show that S must be a hyperplane under some general conditions on S. This is related to Liouville or Bernstein-type theorems for some elliptic Monge-Amp\`ere-type equation., Comment: 11 pages