The first bifurcation point for Delaunay nodoids

Bifurcating nodoids

All complete, axially symmetric surfaces of constant mean curvature in R^3 lie in the one-parameter family D_tau of Delaunay surfaces. The elements of this family which are embedded are called unduloids; all other elements, which correspond to parameter value tau element in R^-, are immersed and are called nodoids. The unduloids are stable in the sense that the only global constant mean curvature deformations of them are to other elements of this Delaunay family. We prove here that this same property is true for nodoids only when tau is sufficiently close to zero (this corresponds to these sur…