Stationary surfaces in Lorentz–Minkowski space

Extract

Consider a space-like plane Π in Minkowski space. Under the presence of a uniform time-like potential directed towards Π, this paper analyses the configurations of shapes that show a space-like surface supported in Π with prescribed volume and show that it is a critical point of the energy of this system. Such a surface is called stationary and it is determined by the condition that the mean curvature is a linear function of the distance from Π and the fact that the angle of contact with the plate Π is constant. We prove that the surface must be rotational symmetric with respect to an axis orthogonal to Π. Next, we show existence and uniqueness of symmetric solutions for a prescribed angle of contact with Π. Finally, we study the shapes that a stationary surface can adopt in terms of its size. We thus derive estimates of its height and the enclosed volume by surface with the support plane.