A geometric characterization of a sharp Hardy inequality
  In this paper, we prove that the distance function of an open connected set in $\mathbb R^{n+1}$ with a $C^{2}$ boundary is superharmonic in the distribution sense if and only if the boundary is {\em weakly mean convex}. We then prove that Hardy inequalities with a sharp constant hold on {weakly mean convex} $C^{2}$ domains. Moreover, we show that the {weakly mean convexity} condition cannot be weakened. We also prove various improved Hardy inequalities on mean convex domains along the line of Brezis-Marcus \cite{BM}. 
Roger T. Lewis, Junfang Li, Yanyan Li
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