Double tori solution to an equation of mean curvature and Newtonian potential

Studies of near periodic patterns in many self-organizing physical and biological systems give rise to a nonlocal geometric problem in the entire space involving the mean curvature and the Newtonian potential. One looks for a set in space of the prescribed volume such that on the boundary of the set the sum of the mean curvature of the boundary and the Newtonian potential of the set, multiplied by a parameter, is constant. Despite its simple form, the problem has a rich set of solutions and its corresponding energy functional has a complex landscape. When the parameter is sufficiently large, there exists a solution that consists of two tori: a larger torus and a smaller torus. Due to the axisymmetry, the problem is formulated on a half plane. A variant of the Lyapunov–Schmidt procedure is developed to reduce the problem to minimizing the energy of the set of two exact tori, as an approximate solution, with respect to their radii. A re-parameterization argument shows that the double tori so obtained indeed solves the equation of mean curvature and Newtonian potential. One also obtains the asymptotic formulae for the radii of the tori in terms of the parameter. This double tori set is the first known disconnected solution.