Symmetric Convex Sets with Minimal Gaussian Surface Area

Abstract: Let $\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ have minimal Gaussian surface area among all sets satisfying $\Omega=-\Omega$ with fixed Gaussian volume. Let $A=A_{x}$ be the second fundamental form of $\partial\Omega$ at $x$, i.e. $A$ is the matrix of first order partial derivatives of the unit normal vector at $x\in\partial\Omega$. For any $x=(x_{1},\ldots,x_{n+1})\in\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$, let $\gamma_{n}(x)=(2\pi)^{-n/2}e^{-(x_{1}^{2}+\cdots+x_{n+1}^{2})/2}$. Let $|A|^{2}$ be the sum of the squares of the entries of $A$, and let $|A|{2\to 2}$ denote the $\ell{2}$ operator norm of $A$. It is shown that if $\Omega$ or $\Omega^{c}$ is convex, and if either $$\int_{\partial\Omega}(|A_{x}|^{2}-1)\gamma_{n}(x)dx>0\qquad\mbox{or}\qquad \int_{\partial\Omega}\Big(|A_{x}|^{2}-1+2\sup_{y\in\partial\Omega}|A_{y}|_{2\to 2}^{2}\Big)\gamma_{n}(x)dx<0,$$ then $\partial\Omega$ must be a round cylinder. That is, except for the case that the average value of $|A|^{2}$ is slightly less than $1$, we resolve the convex case of a question of Barthe from 2001. The main tool is the Colding-Minicozzi theory for Gaussian minimal surfaces, which studies eigenfunctions of the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck type operator $L= \Delta-\langle x,\nabla \rangle+|A|^{2}+1$ associated to the surface $\partial\Omega$. A key new ingredient is the use of a randomly chosen degree 2 polynomial in the second variation formula for the Gaussian surface area. Our actual results are a bit more general than the above statement. Also, some of our results hold without the assumption of convexity.