{"id":{"repo_id":"mit","oai_identifier":"oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/73368"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/mit/oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/73368","repository":{"repo_id":"mit","name":"MIT","base_url":"https://dspace.mit.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"A free boundary problem inspired by a conjecture of De Giorgi","abstract":"We study global monotone solutions of the free boundary problem that arises from minimizing the energy functional I(u) = f lVul2 + V(U), where V(u) is the characteristic function of the interval (-1, 1). This functional is a close relative of the scalar Ginzburg-Landau functional J(u) = f lVul2 + W(u), where W(u) = (1 - u2 )2/2 is a standard double-well potential. According to a famous conjecture of De Giorgi, global critical points of J that are bounded and monotone in one direction have levell sets that are hyperplanes, at least up to dimension 8. Recently, Del Pino, Kowalczyk and Wei gave an intricate fixed-point-argument construction of a counterexample in dimension 9, whose level sets \"follow\" the entire minimal non-planar graph, built by Bombieri, De Giorgi and Giusti (BdGG). In this thesis, we turn to the free boundary variant of the problem and we construct the analogous example; the advantage here is that of geometric transparency as the interphase {lul < 1} will be contained within a unit-width band around the BdGG graph. Furthermore, we avoid the technicalities of Del Pino, Kowalczyk and Wei's fixed-point argument by using barriers only.","abstract_html":"We study global monotone solutions of the free boundary problem that arises from minimizing the energy functional I(u) = f lVul2 + V(U), where V(u) is the characteristic function of the interval (-1, 1). This functional is a close relative of the scalar Ginzburg-Landau functional J(u) = f lVul2 + W(u), where W(u) = (1 - u2 )2/2 is a standard double-well potential. According to a famous conjecture of De Giorgi, global critical points of J that are bounded and monotone in one direction have levell sets that are hyperplanes, at least up to dimension 8. Recently, Del Pino, Kowalczyk and Wei gave an intricate fixed-point-argument construction of a counterexample in dimension 9, whose level sets &quot;follow&quot; the entire minimal non-planar graph, built by Bombieri, De Giorgi and Giusti (BdGG). In this thesis, we turn to the free boundary variant of the problem and we construct the analogous example; the advantage here is that of geometric transparency as the interphase {lul &lt; 1} will be contained within a unit-width band around the BdGG graph. Furthermore, we avoid the technicalities of Del Pino, Kowalczyk and Wei&#x27;s fixed-point argument by using barriers only.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Kamburov, Nikola (Nikola Angelov)"],"institution":"Massachusetts Institute of Technology","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":"Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mathematics.","school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["David Jerison."],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2012,"date_issued":"2012","date_published":"2012","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:21:15Z","subjects":["Mathematics."],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission."],"rights_urls":["http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582"],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/73368","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["David Jerison."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.department","label":"Department","values":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mathematics."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.other","label":"Dc Contributor Other","values":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 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They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission."]},{"key":"dc:rights.uri","label":"Rights URI","values":["http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/73368"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mathematics, 2012.","Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.","Includes bibliographical references (p. 97-99)."]},{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["We study global monotone solutions of the free boundary problem that arises from minimizing the energy functional I(u) = f lVul2 + V(U), where V(u) is the characteristic function of the interval (-1, 1). This functional is a close relative of the scalar Ginzburg-Landau functional J(u) = f lVul2 + W(u), where W(u) = (1 - u2 )2/2 is a standard double-well potential. According to a famous conjecture of De Giorgi, global critical points of J that are bounded and monotone in one direction have levell sets that are hyperplanes, at least up to dimension 8. Recently, Del Pino, Kowalczyk and Wei gave an intricate fixed-point-argument construction of a counterexample in dimension 9, whose level sets \"follow\" the entire minimal non-planar graph, built by Bombieri, De Giorgi and Giusti (BdGG). In this thesis, we turn to the free boundary variant of the problem and we construct the analogous example; the advantage here is that of geometric transparency as the interphase {lul < 1} will be contained within a unit-width band around the BdGG graph. Furthermore, we avoid the technicalities of Del Pino, Kowalczyk and Wei's fixed-point argument by using barriers only."]},{"key":"dc:description.degree","label":"Dc Description Degree","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["A free boundary problem inspired by a conjecture of De Giorgi"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["David Jerison."],"dc:contributor.department":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mathematics."],"dc:contributor.other":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mathematics."],"dc:creator":["Kamburov, Nikola (Nikola Angelov)"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2012-09-27T15:26:06Z"],"dc:date.available":["2012-09-27T15:26:06Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2012"],"dc:description":["Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mathematics, 2012.","Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.","Includes bibliographical references (p. 97-99)."],"dc:description.abstract":["We study global monotone solutions of the free boundary problem that arises from minimizing the energy functional I(u) = f lVul2 + V(U), where V(u) is the characteristic function of the interval (-1, 1). This functional is a close relative of the scalar Ginzburg-Landau functional J(u) = f lVul2 + W(u), where W(u) = (1 - u2 )2/2 is a standard double-well potential. According to a famous conjecture of De Giorgi, global critical points of J that are bounded and monotone in one direction have levell sets that are hyperplanes, at least up to dimension 8. Recently, Del Pino, Kowalczyk and Wei gave an intricate fixed-point-argument construction of a counterexample in dimension 9, whose level sets \"follow\" the entire minimal non-planar graph, built by Bombieri, De Giorgi and Giusti (BdGG). In this thesis, we turn to the free boundary variant of the problem and we construct the analogous example; the advantage here is that of geometric transparency as the interphase {lul < 1} will be contained within a unit-width band around the BdGG graph. Furthermore, we avoid the technicalities of Del Pino, Kowalczyk and Wei's fixed-point argument by using barriers only."],"dc:description.degree":["Ph.D."],"dc:identifier.uri":["http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/73368"],"dc:language.iso":["eng"],"dc:publisher":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology"],"dc:rights":["M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission."],"dc:rights.uri":["http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582"],"dc:subject":["Mathematics."],"dc:title":["A free boundary problem inspired by a conjecture of De Giorgi"],"dc:type":["Thesis"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:21:15Z"}