We give a fairly complete solution to the asymptotic Plateau Problem for minimal surfaces in H^2xR. In particular, we identify the collection of finite Jordan curves in the asymptotic cylinder which bounds a minimal surface in H^2xR.
We give a fairly complete solution to the asymptotic Plateau Problem for area minimizing surfaces in H2xR. In particular, we identify the collection of Jordan curves in the asymptotic boundary of H2xR, which bounds an area minimizing surface in H2xR. Furthermore, we study the similar problem for minimal surfaces, and show that the situation is highly different.
Using the Lawson's existence theorem of minimal surfaces and the symmetries of the Hopf fibration, we will construct symmetric embedded closed minimal surfaces in the three dimensional sphere. These surfaces contain the Clifford torus, the Lawson's minimal surfaces, and seven new minimal surfaces with genera 9, 25, 49, 121, 121, 361 and 841. We will also discuss the relation between such surfaces and the maximal extendable group actions on subsurfaces of the three dimensional sphere.
We prove optimal genus bounds for minimal surfaces arising from the min-max construction of Simon-Smith. This confirms a conjecture made by Pitts-Rubinstein in 1986.
This paper contains the motivation for the study of critical surfaces. In previous work the only justification given for the definition of this new class of surfaces is the strength of the results. However, when viewed as the topological analogue to index 2 minimal surfaces, critical surfaces become quite natural.
We prove that for generic metrics on a 3-sphere, the minimal surface obtained from the min-max procedure of Simon-Smith has index 1. We prove an analogous result for minimal surfaces arising from strongly irreducible Heegaard sweepouts in 3-manifolds. We also confirm a conjecture of Pitts-Rubinstein that a strongly irreducible Heegaard splitting in a hyperbolic three-manifold can either be isotoped to a minimal surface of index at most 1 or else after a neck-pinch is isotopic to a one-sided minimal Heegaard surface.
For any closed Riemannian three-manifold, we prove that for any sequence of closed embedded minimal surfaces with uniformly bounded index, the genus can only grow at most linearly with respect to the area.
In this paper, we show the existence of smoothly embedded closed minimal surfaces in infinite volume hyperbolic $3$-manifolds except some special cases.
Motivated by classical theorems on minimal surface theory in compact hyperbolic three-manifolds, we investigate the questions of existence and deformations for least area minimal surfaces in complete noncompact hyperbolic three-manifold of finite volume. We prove any closed immersed incompressible surface can be deformed to a closed immersed least area surface within its homotopy class in any cusped hyperbolic three-manifold. Our techniques highlight how special structures of these cusped hyperbolic three-manifolds prevent any least area minimal surface going too deep into the cusped region.
In this paper we investigate surfaces in $\mathbb C P^2$ without complex points and characterize the minimal surfaces without complex points and the minimal Lagrangian surfaces by Ruh-Vilms type theorems. We also discuss the liftability of an immersion from a surface to $\mathbb C P^2$ into $S^5$ in Appendix A.
We show that the image of a nonconstant conformal harmonic map $\mathbb C\to \mathbb R^3$, not necessarily proper and possibly with branch points, intersects every properly embedded nonflat minimal surface of bounded curvature in $\mathbb R^3$. The same holds if $\mathbb C$ is replaced by any open conformal surface without nonconstant bounded subharmonic functions.
A general study of minimal surfaces of the Riemannian product of two spheres S^2xS^2 is tackled. We stablish a local correspondence between (non-complex) minimal surfaces of S^2xS^2 and certain pair of minimal surfaces of the sphere S^3. This correspondence also allows us to link minimal surfaces in S^3 and in the Riemannian product S^2xR. Some rigidity results for compact minimal surfaces are also obtained.
In this survey, we discuss various aspects of the minimal surface equation in the three-sphere S^3. After recalling the basic definitions, we describe a family of immersed minimal tori with rotational symmetry. We then review the known examples of embedded minimal surfaces in S^3. Besides the equator and the Clifford torus, these include the Lawson and Kapouleas-Yang examples, as well as a new family of examples found recently by Choe and Soret. We next discuss uniqueness theorems for minimal surfaces in S^3, such as the work of Almgren on the genus 0 case, and our recent solution of Lawson's …
We prove a general fusion theorem for complete orientable minimal surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^3$ with finite total curvature. As a consequence, complete orientable minimal surfaces of weak finite total curvature with exotic geometry are produced. More specifically, universal surfaces (i.e., surfaces from which all minimal surfaces can be recovered) and space-filling surfaces with arbitrary genus and no symmetries.
We classify ruled minimal surfaces in $\Bbb R^3$ with density $e^z.$ It is showed that there is no noncylindrical ruled minimal surface and there is a family of cylindrical ruled minimal surfaces in $\Bbb R^3$ with density $e^z.$ It is also proved that all translation minimal surfaces are ruled.
We construct the first and second Chern-Ricci functions on negatively curved minimal surfaces in ${\mathbb{R}}^{3}$ using Gauss curvature and angle functions, and establish that they become harmonic functions on the minimal surfaces. We prove that a minimal surface has constant first Chern-Ricci function if and only if it is Enneper's surface. We explicitly determine the moduli space of minimal surfaces having constant second Chern-Ricci function, which contains catenoids, helicoids, and their associate families.
We investigate the duality between minimal surfaces in Euclidean space and maximal surfaces in Lorentz-Minkowski space in the family of rotational surfaces. We study if the dual surfaces of two congruent rotational minimal (or maximal) surfaces are congruent. We show that in the duality process by means of a one-parameter group of rotations, it appears the family of Bonnet minimal (maximal) surfaces and the Goursat transformations.
In this paper, we consider a Generalized Bernstein Theorem for a type of generalized minimal surfaces, namely minimal Plateau surfaces. We show that if an orientable minimal Plateau surface is stable and has quadratic area growth in $\mathbb{R}^3 $, then it is flat.
Observing a linear superposition principle, a family of new minimal hypersurfaces in Euclidean space is found, as well as that linear combinations of generalized helicoids induce new algebraic minimal cones of arbitrarily high degree.
We investigate minimal surfaces passing a given curve in $R^{3}$. Using the Frenet frame of a given curve and isothermal parameter, we derive the necessary and sufficient condition for minimal surface. Also we derive the parametric representation of two minimal surface families passing a circle and a helix as examples.
In this article, we construct two one-parameter families of properly embedded minimal surfaces in a three-dimensional Lie group $\widetilde{E(2)}$, which is the universal covering of the group of rigid motions of Euclidean plane endowed with a left-invariant Riemannian metric. The first one can be seen as a family of helicoids, while the second one is a family of catenoidal minimal surfaces. The main tool that we use for the construction of these surfaces is a Weierstrass-type representation introduced by Meeks, Mira, Pérez and Ros for minimal surfaces in Lie groups of dimension three. In the …
In this expository article, we illustrate how two independent flat structures on minimal surfaces induce a harmonic function, which captures the uniqueness of Enneper's surface.
We define two transforms between minimal surfaces with non-circular ellipse of curvature in the 5-sphere, and show how this enables us to construct, from one such surface, a sequence of such surfaces. We also use the transforms to show how to associate to such a surface a corresponding ruled minimal Lagrangian submanifold of complex projective 3-space. We illustrate this explicitly in the case of bipolar minimal surfaces.
When using Traizet's regeneration technique to construct minimal surfaces, the simplest nontrivial configurations are given as the roots of polynomials that satisfy a hypergeometric differential equation. We exhibit examples of simple minimal surfaces exhibiting the same behavior.
We discuss recent results on minimal surfaces and mean curvature flow, focusing on the classification and structure of embedded minimal surfaces and the stable singularities of mean curvature flow. This article is dedicated to Rick Schoen.
We show that to every maximal surface with conelike singularities in Lorentz-Minkowski space $\mathbb{L}^3$ that can be locally represented as the graph of a smooth function, there exists a corresponding timelike minimal surface in $\mathbb{L}^3$. There exists a linear transformation between such a maximal surface and its corresponding timelike minimal surface and it maps the singularities of one to the singularities of the other. Moreover, this transformation establishes a one-one correspondence between such maximal surfaces and timelike minimal surfaces and also preserves the one-one propert…
In the work \cite{Laredo} the author shows that every hypersurface in Euclidean space is locally associated to the unit sphere by a sphere congruence, whose radius function $R$ is a geometric invariant of hypersurface. In this paper we define for any surface $Σ$ its spherical mean curvature $H_S$ which depends on principal curvatures of $Σ$ and the radius function $R$. Then we consider two classes of surfaces: the ones with $H_S = 0$, called $H_1$-surfaces, and the surfaces with spherical mean curvature of harmonic type, named $H_2$-surfaces. We provide for each these classes a Weierstrass-typ…
We investigate the minimal surface problem in the three dimensional Heisenberg group, H, equipped with its standard Carnot-Caratheodory metric. Using a particular surface measure, we characterize minimal surfaces in terms of a sub-elliptic partial differential equation and prove an existence result for the Plateau problem in this setting. Further, we provide a link between our minimal surfaces and Riemannian constant mean curvature surfaces in H equipped with different Riemannian metrics approximating the Carnot-Caratheodory metric. We generate a large library of examples of minimal surfaces a…
Bour's minimal surface has remarkable properties in three dimensional Minkowski space. We reveal the definite and indefinite cases of the Bour's surface using Weierstrass representations, and give some differential geometric properties of the astonishing maximal and minimal surfaces.
We study properly embedded and immersed p(pseudohermitian)-minimal surfaces in the 3-dimensional Heisenberg group. From the recent work of Cheng, Hwang, Malchiodi, and Yang, we learn that such surfaces must be ruled surfaces. There are two types of such surfaces: band type and annulus type according to their topology. We give an explicit expression for these surfaces. Among band types there is a class of properly embedded p-minimal surfaces of so called helicoid type. We classify all the helicoid type p-minimal surfaces. This class of p-minimal surfaces includes all the entire p-minimal graphs…
In this paper, we study trigonal minimal surfaces in flat tori. First, we show a topological obstruction similar to that of hyperelliptic minimal surfaces. Actually, the genus of trigonal minimal surface in 3-dimensional flat torus must be 1 (mod 3). Next, we construct an explicit example in the higher codimensional case. This surface satisfies good properties and is theoretically distinct from traditional examples.
In the present paper we study the Lie sphere geometry of Legendre surfaces by the method of moving frame and we prove an existence theorem for real-analytic Lie-minimal Legendre surfaces.
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.
In this paper we construct complete simply connected minimal surfaces with a prescribed coordinate function. Moreover, we prove that these surfaces are dense in the space of all minimal surfaces with this coordinate function (with the topology of the smooth convergence on compact sets).
Using the fact that any minimal strongly regular surface carries locally canonical principal parameters, we obtain a canonical representation of these surfaces, which makes more precise the Weierstrass representation in canonical principal parameters. This allows us to describe locally the solutions of the natural partial differential equation of minimal surfaces.
Some elementary considerations are presented concerning Catenoids and their stability, separable minimal hypersurfaces, minimal surfaces obtainable by rotating shapes, determinantal varieties, minimal tori in S3, the minimality in Rnk of the ordered set of k orthogonal equal-length n-vectors, and U(1)-invariant minimal 3-manifolds.
We give a simple, direct proof of the easy fact about the Weierstrass Representation, namely, that it always gives a minimal surface. Most presentations include the much harder converse that every simply connected minimal surface is given by the Weierstrass Representation.
The stability and the index of complete one-sided minimal surfaces of certain three-dimensional Riemannian manifolds with positive scalar curvature are studied.
In this paper we consider a three dimensional Kropina space and obtain the partial differential equation that characterizes a minimal surfaces with the induced metric. Using this characterization equation we study various immersions of minimal surfaces. In particular, we obtain the partial differential equation that characterizes the minimal translation surfaces and show that the plane is the only such surface.
Since J. L. Lagrange initiated in 1760 the study of minimal surfaces of Euclidean 3-space, minimal surfaces in real space forms have been studied extensively by many mathematicians during the last two and half centuries. In contrast, so far very few results on minimal Lorentz surfaces in indefinite space forms are known. Hence, in this paper we investigate minimal Lorentz surfaces in arbitrary indefinite space forms. As a consequence, we obtain several classification results for minimal Lorentz surfaces in indefinite space forms. In particular, we completely classify all minimal Lorentz surfac…
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.
We study surfaces in Euclidean space ${\mathbb R}^3$ that are minimal for a log-linear density $ϕ(x,y,z)=αx+βy+γy$, where $α,β,γ$ are real numbers not all zero. We prove that if a surface is $ϕ$-minimal foliated by circles in parallel planes, then these planes are orthogonal to the vector $(α,β,γ)$ and the surface must be rotational. We also classify all minimal surfaces of translation type.
In the present paper, we discuss the singular minimal surfaces in a Euclidean 3-space R^{3} which are minimal. In fact, such a surface is nothing but a plane, a trivial outcome. However, a non-trivial outcome is obtained when we modify the usual condition of singular minimality by using a special semi-symmetric metric connection instead of the Levi-Civita connection on R^{3}. With this new connection, we prove that, besides planes, the singular minimal surfaces which are minimal are the generalized cylinders, providing their explicit equations. A trivial outcome is observed when we use a speci…
This paper gives, in generic situations, a complete classification of ruled minimal surfaces in pseudo-Euclidean space with arbitrary index. In addition, we discuss the condition for ruled minimal surfaces to exist, and give a counter-example on the problem of Bernstein type.
We prove that every unstable equivariant minimal surface in $\mathbb{R}^n$ produces a maximal representation of a surface group into $\prod_{i=1}^n\textrm{PSL}(2,\mathbb{R})$ together with an unstable minimal surface in the corresponding product of closed hyperbolic surfaces. To do so, we lift the surface in $\mathbb{R}^n$ to a surface in a product of $\mathbb{R}$-trees, then deform to a surface in a product of closed hyperbolic surfaces. We show that instability in one context implies instability in the other two.
In this paper, we employ the loop group method to study the construction of minimal Lagrangian surfaces in the complex projective plane for which the surface is contractible. We present several new classes of minimal Lagrangian surfaces in $\mathbb{C} P^2$.
In this paper we will construct a Weierstrass type representation for minimal surfaces in 4-dimensional Lorentzian Damek-Ricci spaces and we give some examples of such surfaces.
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 give an immersion formula, the Sym-Bobenko formula, for minimal surfaces in the 3-dimensional Heisenberg space. Such a formula can be used to give a generalized Weierstrass type representation and construct explicit examples of minimal surfaces.
We construct harmonic diffeomorphisms from the complex plane $C$ onto any Hadamard surface $M$ whose curvature is bounded above by a negative constant. For that, we prove a Jenkins-Serrin type theorem for minimal graphs in $M\times R$ over domains of $M$ bounded by ideal geodesic polygons and show the existence of a sequence of minimal graphs over polygonal domains converging to an entire minimal graph in $M\times R$ with the conformal structure of $C$.
A geometrical correspondence between maximal surfaces in anti-De Sitter space-time and minimal surfaces in the Riemannian product of the hyperbolic plane and the real line is established. New examples of maximal surfaces in anti-De Sitter space-time are obtained in order to illustrate this correspondence.