Minimal surface equation

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The (hyperbolic) minimal surface equation takes the form

\partial_\alpha [ (1 +  \phi_\beta \phi^\beta )^{-1/2}  \phi_\alpha  ] = 0

where φ is a scalar function on R^{n-1} \times R (the graph of a surface in R^n \times R ). This is the Minkowski analogue of the minimal surface equation in Euclidean space, see Hp1994.

  • This is a quasilinear wave equation, and so LWP in Hs for s > n / 2 + 1 follows from energy methods, with various improvements via Strichartz possible. However, it is likely that the special structure of this equation allows us to do better.
  • GWP for small smooth compactly supported data is in Lb-p.