In this paper we show how to bypass the usual difficulties in the analysis of elliptic integrals that arise when solving period problems for minimal surfaces. The method consists of replacing period problems with ordinary Sturm-Liouville problems involving the support function. We give a practical application by proving existence of the sheared Scherk-Karcher family of surfaces numerically described by Wei. Moreover, we show that this family is continuous, and both of its limit-members are the singly periodic genus-one helicoid.
We introduce a new technique to solve period problems on minimal surfaces called limit-method. If a family of surfaces has Weierstrass-data converging to the data of a known example, and this presents a transversal solution of periods, then the original family contains a sub-family with closed periods.
The fact that minimal surfaces in the four-dimensional Euclidean space admit natural parameters implies that any minimal surface is determined uniquely up to a motion by two curvature functions, satisfying a system of two PDE's (the system of natural PDE's). In fact this solves the problem of Lund-Regge for minimal surfaces. Using the corresponding result for minimal surfaces in the three-dimensional Euclidean space, we solve explicitly the system of natural PDE's, expressing any solution by virtue of two holomorphic functions in the Gauss plane. We find the relation between two pairs of holom…
We get a continuous one-parameter new family of embedded minimal surfaces, of which the period problems are two-dimensional. Moreover, one proves that it has Scherk second surface and Hoffman-Wohlgemuth example as limit-members.
A minimal space-like surface in Minkowski space-time is said to be of general type if it is free of degenerate points. The fact that minimal space-like surfaces of general type in Minkowski space-time admit canonical parameters of the first (second) type implies that any minimal space-like surface is determined uniquely up to a motion in space-time by the Gauss curvature and the normal curvature, satisfying a system of two PDE's (the system of natural PDE's). In fact this solves the problem of Lund-Regge for minimal space-like surfaces. Using canonical Weierstrass representations of minimal sp…
We show the existence of various families of properly embedded singly periodic minimal surfaces in R^3 with finite arbitrary genus and Scherk type ends in the quotient. The proof of our results is based on the gluing of small perturbations of pieces of already known minimal surfaces.
Most known examples of doubly periodic minimal surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^3$ with parallel ends limit as a foliation of $\mathbb{R}^3$ by horizontal noded planes, with the location of the nodes satisfying a set of balance equations. Conversely, for each set of points providing a balanced configuration, there is a corresponding three-parameter family of doubly periodic minimal surfaces. In this note we derive a differential equation that is equivalent to the balance equations for doubly periodic minimal surfaces. This allows for the generation of many more solutions to the balance equations, enabl…
We use bifurcation theory to determine the existence of infinitely many new examples of triply periodic minimal surfaces in $\mathbb R^3$. These new examples form branches issuing from the H-family, the rPD-family, the tP-family, and the tD-family, that converge to some degenerate embedding of the families. As to nondegenerate triply periodic minimal surfaces, we prove a perturbation result using an equivariant implicit function theorem.
We consider the question of existence of embedded doubly periodic minimal surfaces in Euclidean 3-space with Scherk-type ends, surfaces that topologically are Scherk's doubly periodic surface with handles added in various ways. We extend the existence results of H. Karcher and F. Wei to more cases, and we find other cases where existence does not hold.
We construct two one-parameter families of minimal properly embedded surfaces in the Lie group Sol3 using a Weierstrass-type representation. These surfaces are not invariant by a one-parameter group of ambient isometries. The first one can be viewed as a family of helicoids, and the second one is a family of minimal annuli called catenoids. Finally we study limits of these catenoids, and in particular we show that one of these limits is a new minimal entire graph.
In this paper we prove existence of complete minimal surfaces in some metric semidirect products. These surfaces are similar to the doubly and singly periodic Scherk minimal surfaces in $\mathbb R^3$. In particular, we obtain these surfaces in the Heisenberg space with its canonical metric, and in Sol3 with a one-parameter family of non-isometric metrics.
A minimal Lorentz surface in $\mathbb R^4_2$ is said to be of general type if its corresponding null curves are non-degenerate. These surfaces admit canonical isothermal and canonical isotropic coordinates. It is known that the Gauss curvature $K$ and the normal curvature $\varkappa$ of such a surface considered as functions of the canonical coordinates satisfy a system of two natural PDEs. Using the Weierstrass type representations of the corresponding null curves, we solve explicitly the system of natural PDEs, expressing any solution by means of four real functions of one variable. We obtai…
A triangulated piecewise-linear minimal surface in Euclidean 3-space defined using a variational characterization is critical for area amongst all continuous piecewise-linear variations with compact support that preserve the simplicial structure. We explicitly construct examples of such surfaces that are embedded and are periodic in three independent directions of Euclidean 3-space.
We construct Weierstrass data for higher genus embedded doubly periodic minimal surfaces and present numerical evidence that the associated period problem can be solved. In the orthogonal ends case, there previously was only one known surface for each genus. We illustrate multiple new examples for each genus g>2. In the parallel ends case, the known examples limit as a foliation of parallel planes with nodes. We construct a new example for each genus g>2 that limit as g-1 singly periodic Scherk surfaces glued between two doubly periodic Scherk surfaces and also as a singly periodic surface wit…
We add two new 1-parameter families to the short list of known embedded triply periodic minimal surfaces of genus 4 in $\mathbb{R}^3$. Both surfaces can be tiled by minimal pentagons with two straight segments and three planar symmetry curves as boundary. In one case (which has the appearance of the CLP surface of Schwarz with an added handle) the two straight segments are parallel, while they are orthogonal in the second case. The second family has as one limit the Costa surface, showing that this limit can occur for triply periodic minimal surfaces. For the existence proof we solve the 1-dim…
Let $\mathcal{K}$ be the space of properly embedded minimal tori in quotients of $\R^3$ by two independent translations, with any fixed (even) number of parallel ends. After an appropriate normalization, we prove that $\mathcal{K}$ is a 3-dimensional real analytic manifold that reduces to the finite coverings of the examples defined by Karcher, Meeks and Rosenberg in \cite{ka4,ka6,mr3}. The degenerate limits of surfaces in $\mathcal{K}$ are the catenoid, the helicoid and three 1-parameter families of surfaces: the simply and doubly periodic Scherk minimal surfaces and the Riemann minimal examp…
Given a tiling $\mathcal{T}$ of the plane by straight edge polygons, which is invariant by two independent translations, we construct a family of embedded triply periodic minimal surfaces which desingularizes $\mathcal{T}\times\mathbb{R}$. For this purpose, inspired by the work of Martin Traizet, we open the nodes of singular Riemann surfaces to glue together simply periodic Karcher saddle towers, each placed at a vertex of the tiling in such a way that its wings go along the corresponding edges of the tiling ending at that vertex.
In 1988, Karcher generalized the family of singly periodic Scherk minimal surfaces by constructing, for each natural $n\geq 2$, a $(2n-3)$-parameter family of singly periodic minimal surfaces with genus zero and $2n$ Scherk-type ends in the quotient, called {\it saddle towers}. They have been recently classified by Pérez and Traizet \cite{PeTra1} as the only properly embedded singly periodic minimal surfaces in $\R^3$ with genus zero and finitely many Scherk-type ends in the quotient. In this paper we obtain as a limit of saddle towers: the catenoid; the doubly periodic Scherk minimal surface …
Using Traizet's regeneration method, we prove the existence of many new 3-dimensional families of embedded, doubly periodic minimal surfaces. All these families have a foliation of 3-dimensional Euclidean space by vertical planes as a limit. In the quotient, these limits can be realized conformally as noded Riemann surfaces, whose components are copies of C* with finitely many nodes. We derive the balance equations for the location of the nodes and exhibit solutions that allow for surfaces of arbitrarily large genus and number of ends in the quotient.
In the previous work, the first author established an algorithm to compute the Morse index and the nullity of an $n$-periodic minimal surface in $\mathbb{R}^n$. In fact, the Morse index can be translated into the number of negative eigenvalues of a real symmetric matrix and the nullity can be translated into the number of zero-eigenvalue of a Hermitian matrix. The two key matrices consist of periods of the abelian differentials of the second kind on a minimal surface, and the signature of the Hermitian matrix gives a new invariant of a minimal surface. On the other hand, H family, rPD family, …
Inspired by the Finn-Osserman (1964), Chern (1969), do Carmo-Peng (1979) proofs of the Bernstein theorem, which characterizes flat planes as the only entire minimal graphs, we prove a new rigidity theorem for associate families connecting the doubly periodic Scherk graphs and the singly periodic Scherk towers. Our characterization of Scherk's surfaces discovers a new idea from the original Finn-Osserman curvature estimate. Combining two generically independent flat structures introduced by Chern and Ricci, we shall construct geometric harmonic functions on minimal surfaces, and establish that …
We construct embedded minimal surfaces which are $n$-periodic in $\mathbb{R}^n$. They are new for codimension $n-2\ge 2$. We start with a Jordan curve of edges of the $n$-dimensional cube. It bounds a Plateau minimal disk which Schwarz reflection extends to a complete minimal surface. Studying the group of Schwarz reflections, we can characterize those Jordan curves for which the complete surface is embedded. For example, for $n=4$ exactly five such Jordan curves generate embedded surfaces. Our results apply to surface classes other than minimal as well, for instance polygonal surfaces.
It is proved that the Heisenberg group $\operatorname*{Nil}\nolimits_{3}$ with a balanced metric, the sum of the left and right invariant metrics, splits as a Riemannian product $\mathbb{T\times Z}$, where $\mathbb{T}$ is a totally geodesic surface and $\mathbb{Z}$ the center of $\operatorname*{Nil}% \nolimits_{3}.$ It is then proved the existence of complete properly embedded minimal surfaces in $\operatorname*{Nil}\nolimits_{3}$ by solving the asymptotic Dirichlet problem for the minimal surface equation on $\mathbb{T}$. It is also proved the existence of complete properly embedded minimal s…
Given a noncompact disconnected complete periodic curve $Γ$ with no self intersection in $\mathbb R^3$, it is proved that there exists a noncompact simply connected periodic minimal surface spanning $Γ$. As an application it is shown that for any tetrahedron $T$ with dihedral angles $\leq90^\circ$ there exist four embedded minimal annuli in $T$ which are perpendicular to $\partial T$ along their boundary. It is also proved that every Platonic solid of $\mathbb R^3$ contains five types of free boundary embedded minimal surfaces of genus zero.
We give a uniform and elementary treatment of many classical and new triply periodic minimal surfaces in Euclidean space, based on a Schwarz-Christoffel formula for periodic polygons in the plane. Our surfaces share the property that vertical symmetry planes cut them into simply connected pieces.
Let N be a complete, homogeneously regular Riemannian manifold of dimension greater than 2 and let M be a compact submanifold of N. Let $Σ$ be a compact orientable surface with boundary. We show that for any continuous $f: (Σ, \partial Σ) \rightarrow (N, M)$ for which the induced homomorphism on certain fundamental groups is injective, there exists a branched minimal immersion of $Σ$ solving the free boundary problem $(Σ, \partial Σ) \rightarrow (N, M)$, and minimizing area among all maps which induce the same action on the fundamental groups as f. Furthermore, under certain nonnegativity assu…
We give a positive answer to M. Traizet's open question about the existence of complete embedded minimal surfaces with Scherk-ends without planar geodesics. In the singly periodic case, these examples get close to an extension of Traizet's result concerning asymmetric complete minimal submanifolds of Euclidean space with finite total curvature.
In this paper we develop the theory of properly immersed minimal surfaces in the quotient space $\mathbb H^2\times\mathbb R/G,$ where $G$ is a subgroup of isometries generated by a vertical translation and a horizontal isometry in $\mathbb H^2$ without fixed points. The horizontal isometry can be either a parabolic translation along horocycles in $\mathbb H^2$ or a hyperbolic translation along a geodesic in $\mathbb H^2.$ In fact, we prove that if a properly immersed minimal surface in $\mathbb H^2\times\mathbb R/G$ has finite total curvature then its total curvature is a multiple of $2π,$ and…
Given two univalent harmonic mappings $f_1$ and $f_2$ on $\mathbb{D}$, which lift to minimal surfaces via the Weierstrass-Enneper representation theorem, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for $f_3=(1-s)f_1+sf_2$ to lift to a minimal surface for $s\in[0,1]$. We then construct such mappings from Enneper's surface to Scherk's singularly periodic surface, Sckerk's doubly periodic surface to the catenoid, and the 4-Enneper surface to the 4-noid.
We construct 1-parameter families of non-periodic embedded minimal surfaces of infinite genus in $T \times \mathbb{R}$, where $T$ denotes a flat 2-tori. Each of our families converges to a foliation of $T \times \mathbb{R}$ by $T$. These surfaces then lift to minimal surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^3$ that are periodic in horizontal directions but not periodic in the vertical direction. In the language of crystallography, our construction can be interpreted as disordered stacking of layers of periodically arranged catenoid necks. Our work is motivated by experimental observations of twinning defects i…
We prove that a connected properly immersed minimal surface in Euclidean 3-space with infinite symmetry group whose intersection with a ball of radius R is less than 2\piR^2 is a plane, a catenoid or a Scherk singly-periodic minimal surface. In particular, we prove that the only periodic minimal desingularization of a pair of intersecting planes is Scherk's singly-periodic minimal surface.
We describe a new family of triply-periodic minimal surfaces with hexagonal symmetry, related to the quartz (qtz) and its dual (the qzd net). We provide a solution to the period problem and provide a parametrisation of these surfaces, that are not in the regular class, by the Weierstrass-Enneper formalism. We identified this analytical description of the surface by generating an area-minimising mesh interface from a pair of dual graphs (qtz & qzd) using the generalised Voronoi construction of De Campo, Hyde and colleagues, followed by numerical identification of the flat point structure. This …
