On the number of minimal surfaces with a given boundary
David Hoffman, Brian White
备注：
13 pages Dedicated to Jean Pierre Bourguignon on the occasion of his 60th birthday. One tex 'newcommand' revised because arxiv version had an error. Two illustrations and one proof have been added. May 2009: Abstract, key words, MSC codes added. One typo fixed. Paper has been published in Asterisque
We generalize the following result of White: Suppose $N$ is a compact, strictly convex domain in $\RR^3$ with smooth boundary. Let $Σ$ be a compact 2-manifold with boundary. Then a generic smooth curve $Γ\cong \partialΣ$ in $\partial N$ bounds an odd or even number of embedded minimal surfaces diffeomorphic to $Σ$ according to whether $Σ$ is or is not a union of disks. First, we prove that the parity theorem holds for any compact riemannian 3-manifold $N$ such that $N$ is strictly mean convex, $N$ is homeomorphic to a ball, $\partial N$ is smooth, and $N$ contains no closed minimal surfaces. We then further relax the hypotheses by allowing $N$ to be weakly mean convex and to have piecewise smooth boundary. We extend the parity theorem yet further by showing that, under an additional hypothesis, it remains true for minimal surfaces with prescribed symmetries.
The parity theorems are used in an essential way to prove the existence of embedded genus-$g$ helicoids in $\SS^2\times \RR$. We give a very brief outline of this application. (The full argument will appear elsewhere.)
In this paper we investigate free boundary minimal surfaces in the unit ball in Euclidean 3-space, and by using holomorphic techniques we prove that intersection curves of free boundary minimal surfaces with the unit sphere are all circles.
We employ min-max techniques to show that the unit ball in $\mathbb{R}^3$ contains embedded free boundary minimal surfaces with connected boundary and arbitrary genus.
In the Euclidean unit three-ball, we construct compact, embedded, two-sided free boundary minimal surfaces with connected boundary and prescribed high genus, by a gluing construction tripling the equatorial disc. Aside from the equatorial disc itself, these are the first examples in the three-ball of compact free boundary minimal surfaces with connected boundary.
In this note we investigate free boundary minimal surfaces in the Euclidean 3-space, and by using holomorphic techniques developed by Fraser and Schoen we prove that the free boundary minimal annulus is the critical catenoid.
We prove a lower bound for the first Steklov eigenvalue of embedded minimal hypersurfaces with free boundary in a compact $n$-dimensional manifold which has nonnegative Ricci curvature and strictly convex boundary. When $n=3$, this implies apriori area and curvature estimates for these minimal surfaces in terms of the geometry of the ambient manifold and the topology of the minimal surface. An important consequence of the estimate is a smooth compactness result for embedded minimal surfaces with free boundary when the topological type of these minimal surfaces is fixed.
In this paper, we build up a min-max theory for minimal surfaces using sweepouts of surfaces of genus $g\geq 1$ and $m\geq 1$ ideal boundary components. We show that the width for the area functional can be achieved by a bubble tree limit consisting of branched genus $g$ free boundary minimal surfaces with nodes, and possibly finitely many branched minimal spheres and free boundary minimal disks.
We first consider a uniqueness problem for embedded free boundary minimal annuli in the three-dimensional Euclidean unit half-ball. Then, we obtain symmetry properties for compact embedded free boundary minimal surfaces in the unit ball. Finally, we obtain several uniqueness results for the critical catenoid under symmetry conditions on the boundary. For example, we show that if an embedded free boundary minimal annulus whose boundary consists of two congruent components and has a reflection symmetry by a plane, then it is congruent to the critical catenoid.
We prove that the index is bounded from below by a linear function of its first Betti number for any compact free boundary $f$-minimal hypersurface in certain positively curved weighted manifolds.
Using the linearized doubling methodology we carry out a PDE gluing construction of a discrete family of non-rotational properly immersed free boundary minimal annuli in the Euclidean unit 3-ball. The surfaces we construct resemble equatorial disks joined by half-catenoidal bridges at the boundary.
In this paper, we give a relationship between the eigenvalues of the Hodge Laplacian and the eigenvalues of the Jacobi operator for a free boundary minimal hypersurface of a Euclidean convex body. We then use this relationship to obtain new index bounds for such minimal hypersurfaces in terms of their topology. In particular, we show that the index of a free boundary minimal surface in a convex domain in $\mathbb{R}^3$ tends to infinity as its genus or the number of boundary components tends to infinity.
In this paper, we study the Gauss map of a free boundary minimal surface. The main theorem asserts that if components of the Gauss map are eigenfunctions of the Jacobi-Steklov operator, then the surface must be rotationally symmetric.
In this paper we prove that a flat free-boundary minimal $n$-disk, $n\geq3$, in the unit Euclidean ball $B^{n+1}$ is the unique compact free boundary minimal hypersurface in the unit Euclidean ball which the squared norm of the second fundamental form is less than either $\frac{n^2}{4}$ or $\frac{(n-2)^2}{4|x|^2}$. Moreover, we prove analogous results for compact free boundary minimal hypersurfaces in annular domains with a conformally Euclidean metric.
We study the Yamabe flow on compact Riemannian manifolds of dimensions greater than two with minimal boundary. Convergence to a metric with constant scalar curvature and minimal boundary is established in dimensions up to seven, and in any dimensions if the manifold is spin.
We extend to higher dimensions earlier sharp bounds for the area of two dimensional free boundary minimal surfaces contained in a geodesic ball of the round sphere. This follows work of Brendle and Fraser-Schoen in the euclidean case.
In this work, we investigate the existence of compact free-boundary minimal hypersurfaces immersed in several domains. Using an original integral identity for compact free-boundary minimal hypersurfaces that are immersed in a domain whose boundary is a regular level set, we study the case where this domain is a quadric or, more generally, a rotational domain. This existence study is done without topological restrictions. We also obtain a new gap theorem for free boundary hypersurfaces immersed in an Euclidean ball and in a rotational ellipsoid.
We show that, among free boundary minimal surfaces in the unit ball in the three-dimensional Euclidean space, the flat equatorial disk and the critical catenoid are characterised by a pinching condition on the length of their second fundamental form.
Built on a recent work of Almaraz, Barbosa, de Lima on positive mass theorems on asymptotically flat manifods with a noncompact boundary, we apply free boundary minimal surface techniques to prove their positive mass theorem and study the existence of positive scalar curvature metrics with mean convex boundary on a connected sum of the form $(\mathbb{T}^{n-1}\times[0,1])\#M_0$.
In this note, we study minimal Lagrangian surfaces in $\mathbb{B}^4$ with Legendrian capillary boundary on $\mathbb{S}^3$. On the one hand, we prove that any minimal Lagrangian surface in $\mathbb{B}^4$ with Legendrian free boundary on $\mathbb{S}^3$ must be an equatorial plane disk. One the other hand, we show that any annulus type minimal Lagrangian surface in $\mathbb{B}^4$ with Legendrian capillary boundary on $\mathbb{S}^3$ must be congruent to one of the Lagrangian catenoids. These results confirm the conjecture proposed by Li, Wang and Weng (Sci. China Math., 2020).
In this work, we prove that any two free boundary minimal hypersurfaces in the unit Euclidean ball have an intersection point in any half-ball. This is a strong version of the Frankel property proved by A. Fraser and M. Li \cite{FRLI}. As a consequence, we obtain the two-piece property for free boundary minimal hypersurfaces in the unit ball: every equatorial disk divides any compact minimal hypersurface with free boundary in the unit ball in two connected pieces.
This paper forms part of our ongoing works on the existence of complete non-compact free boundary minimal planes in an asymptotically flat three-dimensional Riemannian manifold with boundary. We set up the degree theory for the space of properly embedded partially free boundary minimal half disks in a three-dimensional half ball. We prove that the space of such surfaces is a Banach manifold. The projection map which projects partially free boundary minimal half disks into their Dirichlet boundaries is a Fredholm map of index zero and has a well-defined mod-2 degree under suitable assumptions. …
In this paper, we compute the Morse index for a free boundary minimal submanifold from data of two simpler problems. The first one is the corresponding problem with fixed boundary condition; and the second is associated with the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map for Jacobi fields. As an application, we show that the Morse index of a free boundary minimal annulus is equal to 4 if and only if it is the critical catenoid.
Inspired by work of Ejiri-Micallef on closed minimal surfaces, we compare the energy index and the area index of a free-boundary minimal surface of a Riemannian manifold with boundary, and show that the area index is controlled from above by the area and the topology of the surface. Combining these results with work of Fraser-Li, we conclude that the area index of a free-boundary minimal surface in a convex domain of Euclidean three-space, is bounded from above by a linear function of its genus and its number of boundary components. We also prove index bounds for submanifolds of higher dimensi…
In 1960s, Almgren initiated a program to find minimal hypersurfaces in compact manifolds using min-max method. This program was largely advanced by Pitts and Schoen-Simon in 1980s when the manifold has no boundary. In this paper, we finish this program for general compact manifold with nonempty boundary. As a result, we prove the existence of a smooth embedded minimal hypersurface with free boundary in any compact smooth Euclidean domain. An application of our general existence result combined with the work of Marques and Neves shows that for any compact Riemannian manifolds with nonnegative R…
This paper proves that classical minimal surfaces of arbitrary topological type with total boundary curvature at most 4πmust be smoothly embedded. Related results are proved for varifolds and for soap film surfaces.
In this paper, we prove uniform curvature estimates for immersed stable free boundary minimal hypersurfaces which satisfy a uniform area bound. Our result is a natural generalization of the celebrated Schoen-Simon-Yau interior curvature estimates up to the free boundary. A direct corollary of our curvature estimates is a smooth compactness theorem which is an essential ingredient in the min-max theory of free boundary minimal hypersurfaces developed by the last two authors. We also prove a monotonicity formula for free boundary minimal submanifolds in Riemannian manifolds for any dimension and…
The purpose of the present paper is to show that the components of the unit normal of any minimal surface with free boundary in the unit ball, are eigenfunctions associated with the eigenvalue $-2$, for some (new) natural eigenvalue problem for the Jacobi operator; this fact has analytic (spectral) consequences for free boundary minimal surfaces in the unit $3$-ball of index $4$, and might prove useful in order to characterize these. This is also in strong analogy with the case of minimal surfaces in $S^3$.
We observe that the $k$-dimensional width of an $n$-ball in a space form is given by the area of an equatorial $k$-ball. We also investigate related lower bounds for the area of a free boundary minimal submanifold in a space form ball.
We study the behavior of minimal hypersurfaces in the Schwarzschild $n$-manifolds that intersect the horizon orthogonally along the boundary. We show that a free boundary minimal hypersurface and a totally geodesic hyperplane must intersect when the distance between them is achieved in a bounded region. We also discuss when the Schwarzschild metric is perturbed in a way that its scalar curvature is no longer positive.
We obtain a series of results in the global theory of free boundary minimal surfaces, which in particular provide a rather complete picture for the way different complexity criteria, such as area, topology and Morse index compare, beyond the regime where effective estimates are at disposal.
We study of the shape of a compact singular minimal surface in terms of the geometry of its boundary, asking what type of {\it a priori} information can be obtained on the surface from the knowledge of its boundary. We derive estimates of the area and the height in terms of the boundary. In case that the boundary is a circle, we study under what conditions the surface is rotational. Finally, we deduce non-existence results when the boundary is formed by two curves that are sufficiently far apart.
Is it possible to obtain unbounded minimal surfaces in certain asymptotically flat 3-manifolds as a limit of solutions to a natural mountain pass problem with diverging boundaries? In this work, we give evidence that this might be true by analyzing related aspects in the case of the exact Riemannian Schwarzschild manifold. More precisely, we observe that the simplest minimal surface in this space has Morse index one. We prove also a relationship between the length of the boundary and the density at infinity of general minimal surfaces satisfying a free-boundary condition along the horizon.
We establish a curvature estimate for classical minimal surfaces with total boundary curvature less than 4π. The main application is a bound on the genus of these surfaces depending solely on the geometry of the boundary curve. We also prove that the set of simple closed curves with total curvature less than 4πand which do not bound an orientable compact embedded minimal surface of genus greater than g, for any given g, is open in the C^{2,α} topology.
We construct free boundary minimal surfaces (FBMS) embedded in the unit ball in the Euclidean three-space which are compact, lie arbitrarily close to the boundary unit sphere, are of genus zero, and their boundary has an arbitrarily large number of connected boundary components. The construction is by PDE gluing methods and the surfaces are desingularizations of unions of many catenoidal annuli and two flat discs. The union of the boundaries of the catenoidal annuli and discs is the union of a large finite number of parallel circles contained in the unit sphere, with each parallel circle conta…
We study the Morse index of minimal surfaces with free boundary in a half-space. We improve previous estimates relating the Neumann index to the Dirichlet index and use this to answer a question of Ambrozio, Buzano, Carlotto, and Sharp concerning the non-existence of index two embedded minimal surfaces with free boundary in a half-space. We also give a simplified proof of a result of Chodosh and Maximo concerning lower bounds for the index of the Costa deformation family.
We investigate compactness phenomena involving free boundary minimal hypersurfaces in Riemannian manifolds of dimension less than eight. We provide natural geometric conditions that ensure strong one-sheeted graphical subsequential convergence, discuss the limit behaviour when multi-sheeted convergence happens and derive various consequences in terms of finiteness and topological control.
Given a C2-domain with compact boundary in an arbitrary complete Riemannian manifold, we search for smallness conditions on the boundary data for which the Dirichlet problem for the minimal hypersurface equation is solvable. We obtain an extension to Riemannian manifolds of an existence result of G. H. Williams ( J. Reine Angew. Math. 354:123-140, 1984).
We prove a phenomenon of concentration of total curvature for stable minimal surfaces in the product space H^2xR; where H^2 is the hyperbolic plane. Under some geometric conditions on the asymptotic boundary of an oriented stable minimal surface immersed in H^2xR, it has infinite total curvature. In particular, we infer that a minimal graph M in H^2xR whose asymptotic boundary is a graph over an arc of the asymptotic boundary of H^2, different from the asymptotic boundary of the boundary of M, has infinite total curvature. Consequently, if M is a stable minimal surface immersed into H^2xR with…
The minimal surfaces meeting in triples with equal angles along a common boundary naturally arise from soap films and other physical phenomenon. They are also the natural extension of the usual minimal surface. In this paper, we consider the multiple junction surface and show the Bernstein Theorem still holds for stable multiple junction surface in some special case. The key part is to derive the $L^p$ estimate of the curvature for multiple junction surface.
In real space forms, Fraser and Schoen proved that a free-boundary minimal disk in a geodesic ball is totally geodesic. In this note, we consider free-boundary minimal surfaces $Σ$ (of any genus) in geodesic balls of complex space forms. In $\mathbb{CP}^2$, $\mathbb{C}^2$ and $\mathbb{CH}^2$, we show that if $Σ$ is Lagrangian, then $Σ$ is totally geodesic. In $\mathbb{CP}^n$, $\mathbb{C}^n$ and $\mathbb{CH}^n$ for $n \geq 2$, we show that if $Σ$ has Kähler angle $π/2$, then $Σ$ is superminimal.
We study the existence and uniqueness problem of compact minimal vertical graphs in $\mathbb{H}^n\times\mathbb{R}$, $n\geq 2$, over bounded domains in the slice $\mathbb{H}^n\times\{0\}$, with non-connected boundary having a finite number of $C^0$ hypersufaces homeomorphic to the sphere $\mathbb{S}^{n-1}$, with prescribed bounded continuous boundary data, under hypotheses relating those data and the geometry of the boundary. We show the nonexistence of compact minimal vertical graphs in $\mathbb{H}^n\times\mathbb{R}$ having the boundary in two slices and the height greater than or equal to $π/…
