We prove a Pohozaev type identity for non-linear eigenvalue equations of the Dirac operator on Riemannian spin manifolds with boundary. As an application, we obtain that the mean curvature H of a conformal immersion S^{n}-> R^{n+1} satisfies $\int \partial_X H=0$ where X is a conformal vector field on S^{n} and where the integration is carried out with respect to the Euclidean volume measure of the image.<BR> This identity is analogous to the Kazdan-Warner obstruction that appears in the problem of prescribing the scalar curvature on S^{n} inside the standard conformal class.
In the theory of minimal submanifold, the following problem is fundamental: when does a given Riemannian manifold admit (or does not admit) a minimal isometric immersion into an Euclidean space form of arbitrary dimension? A partial solution of this problem was obtained by B.Y. Chen as an application of his fundamental inequality [1]. In this paper we obtain another partial solution of this problem.
Motivated by the beautiful theory and the rich applications of harmonic conformal immersions and conformal immersions of constant mean curvature (CMC) surfaces, we study biharmonic conformal immersions of surfaces into a generic 3-manifold. We first derive an invariant equation for such immersions, we then try to answer the question, "what surfaces can be biharmonically conformally immersed into Euclidean 3-space?" We prove that a circular cylinder is the only CMC surface that can be biharmonically conformally immersed into a Euclidean 3-space; We obtain a classification of biharmonic conforma…
In this paper, we determine all conformal minimal immersions of 2-spheres in complex Grassmann manifold $G(2,N; \mathbb{C})$ with parallel second fundamental form.
We proved that a conformal immersion of $M_0^{n_0}\times M_1^{n_1}$ as an hipersurface in a Euclidean space must be an extrinsic product of immersions, under the assumption that $n_0, n_1 \geq 2$ and that $M^{n_0}_0\times M^{n_1}_1$ is not conformally flat. We also stated a similar theorem for an arbitrary number of factors, more precisely, a conformal immersion $f\colon M^{n_0}_0 \times \cdots \times M^{n_k}_k \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^{n+k}$ must be an extrinsic product of immersions if one of the factors admits a plane with vanishing curvature and the remaining factors are not flat.
We prove the existence of (branched) conformal immersions F: S^2 -> R^3 with mean curvature H > 0 arbitrarily prescribed up to a 3-dimensional affine indeterminacy. A similar result is proved for the space forms S^3, H^3 and partial results for surfaces of higher genus.
We introduce a family of variational functionals for spinor fields on a compact Riemann surface $M$ that can be used to find close-to-conformal immersions of $M$ into $\mathbb{R}^3$ in a prescribed regular homotopy class. Numerical experiments indicate that, by taking suitable limits, minimization of these functionals can also yield piecewise smooth isometric immersions of a prescribed Riemannian metric on $M$.
We provide integral curvature bounds for compact Riemannian manifolds that allow isometric immersions into a Euclidean space with low codimension in terms of the Betti numbers.
In this paper, we firstly extend Theorem 5.1.1 in \cite {Helein} due to Hélein to a rescaled branched conformal immersed sequence(c.f. Theorem 1.5). By virtue of this local convergence theorem, we study the blowup behavior of a sequence of branched conformal immersions of closed Riemannian surface in $\mathbb{R}^{n}$ with uniformly bounded areas and Willmore energies. Furthermore, we prove that the integral identity of Gauss curvature is true.
Geometry of conformal minimal two-spheres immersed in $G(2,6;\mathbb{R})$ is studied in this paper by harmonic maps. We construct a non-homogeneous constant curved minimal two-sphere in $G(2,6;\mathbb{R})$, and give a classification theorem of linearly full conformal minimal immersions of constant curvature from $S^2$ to $G(2,6;\mathbb{R})$, or equivalently, a complex hyperquadric $Q_{4}$, which illustrates minimal two-spheres of constant curvature in $Q_{4}$ are in general not congruent.
We prove integral curvature bounds in terms of the Betti numbers for compact submanifolds of the Euclidean space with low codimension. As an application, we obtain topological obstructions for $δ$-pinched immersions. Furthermore, we obtain intrinsic obstructions for minimal submanifolds in spheres with pinched second fundamental form.
This paper studies conformal biharmonic immersions. We first study the transformations of Jacobi operator and the bitension field under conformal change of metrics. We then obtain an invariant equation for a conformal biharmonic immersion of a surface into Euclidean 3-space. As applications, we construct a 2-parameter family of non-minimal conformal biharmonic immersions of cylinder into $\r^3$ and some examples of conformal biharmonic immersions of 4-dimensional Euclidean space into sphere and hyperbolic space thus provide many simple examples of proper biharmonic maps with rich geometric mea…
We study sequences $f_k:Σ_k \to \R^n$ of conformally immersed, compact Riemann surfaces with fixed genus and Willmore energy ${\cal W}(f) \leq Λ$. Assume that $Σ_k$ converges to $Σ$ in moduli space, i.e. $ϕ_k^\ast(Σ_k) \to Σ$ as complex structures for diffeomorphisms $ϕ_k$. Then we construct a branched conformal immersion $f:Σ\to \R^n$ and Möbius transformations $σ_k$, such that for a subsequence $σ_k \circ f_k \circ ϕ_k \to f$ weakly in $W^{2,2}_{loc}$ away from finitely many points. For $Λ< 8π$ the map $f$ is unbranched. If the $Σ_k$ diverge in moduli space, then we show $\liminf_{k \to \inf…
We prove that for any open Riemann surface $N,$ natural number $n\geq 3,$ non-constant harmonic map $h:N\to \mathbb{R}^{n-2}$ and holomorphic 2-form $H$ on $N,$ there exists a weakly complete harmonic map $X=(X_j)_{j=1,\ldots,n}:N \to \mathbb{R}^n$ with Hopf differential $H$ and $(X_j)_{j=3,\ldots,n}=h.$ In particular, there exists a complete conformal minimal immersion $Y=(Y_j)_{j=1,\ldots,n}:N \to \mathbb{R}^n$ such that $(Y_j)_{j=3,\ldots,n}=h.$ As a consequence of these results, complete full non-decomposable minimal surfaces with arbitrary conformal structure and whose generalized Gauss m…
This paper introduces a complex representation for spacelike surfaces in the Lorentz-Minkowski space $L^4$, based in two complex valued functions which can be assumed to be holomorphic or anti-holomorphic. When the immersion is contained in quadrics of $L^4$, the representation then allows us to obtain interesting partial differential equations with holomorphic or anti-holomorphic parameters, within which we find the partial Riccati Equation. Using then theory of holomorphic complex functions we construct explicitly new local solutions for those PDEs together with its associated geometric solu…
In this paper we prove several quantitative rigidity results for conformal immersions of surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^n$ with bounded total curvature. We show that (branched) conformal immersions which are close in energy to either a round sphere, a conformal Clifford torus, an inverted catenoid, an inverted Enneper's minimal surface or an inverted Chen's minimal graph must be close to these surfaces in the $W^{2,2}$-norm. Moreover, we apply these results to prove a corresponding rigidity result for complete, connected and non-compact surfaces.
For a conformal manifold, we describe a new relation between the ambient obstruction tensor of Fefferman and Graham and the holonomy of the normal conformal Cartan connection. This relation allows us to prove several results on the vanishing and the rank of the obstruction tensor, for example for conformal structures admitting twistor spinors or normal conformal Killing forms. As our main tool we introduce the notion of a conformal holonomy distribution and show that its integrability is closely related to the exceptional conformal structures in dimensions five and six that were found by Nurow…
We present a global conformal invariant on closed six-manifolds which obstructs the existence of a conformally Einstein metric. We show that this obstruction is nontrivial and, up to multiplication by a constant, is the unique such invariant. This also gives rise to a (possibly trivial) diffeomorphism invariant which obstructs the existence of an Einstein metric. We also discuss global conformal invariants which obstruct the existence of a conformally Einstein metric on closed six-manifolds with infinite fundamental group.
In this paper, following Sullivan, Kusner, and Schmitt, we study conformal immersions of Riemann surfaces into the three-dimensional Euclidean space. Regarding such immersions as special bundle maps from the tangent bundle of the surface to the cotangent bundle of the 2-dimensional sphere, we generalize the classical Weierstrass representation of minimal surfaces to the case of arbitrary conformal immersions. We study how such an immersion gives rise to a spin structure on the surface together with a pair of spinors and how the immersion itself can be studied by means of these spinors.
In this paper, for an immersion $f$ of an $n$-dimensional Riemannian manifold $M$ into $(n+d)$-Euclidean space we give a sufficient condition on $f$ so that, in case $d\leq 5$, any immersion $g$ of $M$ into $(n+d+1)$-Euclidean space that induces on $M$ a metric that is conformal to the metric induced by $f$ is locally obtained, in a dense subset of $M$, by a composition of $f$ and a conformal immersion from an open subset of $(n+d)$-Euclidean space into an open subset of $(n+d+1)$-Euclidean space. Our result extends a theorem for hypersurfaces due to M. Dajczer and E. Vergasta. The restriction…
In this paper we show a quantitative rigidity result for the minimizer of the Willmore functional among all projective planes in $\mathbb{R}^n$ with $n\ge 4$. We also construct an explicit counterexample to a corresponding rigidity result in codimension one, by showing that an Enneper surface might split-off during a blow-up process. For conformal immersions of spheres with large enough Willmore energies, we construct explicit counterexamples to a quantitative rigidity result and this complements the recently obtained rigidity results in [LaNg13].
Let us fix a conformal class $[g_0]$ and a spin structure $σ$ on a compact manifold $M$. For any $g\in [g_0]$, let $λ^+_1(g)$ be the smallest positive eigenvalue of the Dirac operator $D$ on $(M,g,σ)$. In a previous paper we have shown that $$λ_{min}(M,g_0,σ):=\inf_{g\in [g_0]} λ_1^+(g)\vol(M,g)^{1/n}>0.$$ In the present article, we enlarge the conformal class by certain singular metrics. We will show that if $λ_{min}(M,g_0,σ)<λ_{min}(S^n)$, then the infimum is attained on the enlarged conformal class. For proving this, we have to solve a system of semi-linear partial differential equations in…
Let $\mathcal{R}$ be an open Riemann surface. In this paper we prove that every continuous function $M \to \mathbb{R}^n$, $n\ge 3$, defined on a divergent Jordan arc $M \subset \mathcal{R}$ can be approximated in the Carleman sense by conformal minimal immersions; thus providing a new generalization of Carleman's theorem. In fact, we prove that this result remains true for null curves and many other classes of directed holomorphic immersions for which the directing variety satisfies a certain flexibility property. Furthermore, the constructed immersions may be chosen to be complete or proper u…
The main goal of this paper is to show a counterexample to the following conjecture: {\bf Conjecture} [Meeks, Sullivan]: If $f:M\to \mathbb{R}^3$ is a complete proper minimal immersion where $M$ is a Riemannian surface without boundary and with finite genus, then $M$ is parabolic. We have proved: {\bf Theorem:} There exists $χ: D\longrightarrow \mathbb{R}^3$, a conformal proper minimal immersion defined on the unit disk.
We use a new method to give conditions for the existence of a local isometric immersion of a Riemannian $n$-manifold $M$ in $\mathbb{R}^{n+k}$, for a given $n$ and $k$. These equate to the (local) existence of a $k$-tuple of scalar fields on the manifold, satisfying a certain non-linear equation involving the Riemannian curvature tensor of $M$. Setting $k=1$, we proceed to recover the fundamental theorem of hypersurfaces. In the case of manifolds of positive sectional curvature and $n\geq 3$, we reduce the solvability of the Gauss and Codazzi equations to the cancelation of a set of obstructio…
For a smooth immersion $f$ from the punctured disk $D\backslash\{0\}$ into $\mathbb{R}^n$ extendable continuously at the puncture, if its mean curvature is square integrable and the measure of $f(D)\cap B_{r_k}=o(r_k)$ for a sequence $r_k\to 0$, we show that the Riemannian surface $(D_r\backslash\{0\},g)$ where $g$ is the induced metric is conformally equivalent to the unit Euclidean punctured disk, for any $r\in(0,1)$. For a locally $W^{2,2}$ Lipschitz immersion $f$ from the punctured disk $D_2\backslash\{0\}$ into $\mathbb{R}^n$, if $\|\nabla f\|_{L^\infty}$ is finite and the second fundamen…
Let $M$ be an open Riemann surface. We prove that every meromorphic function on $M$ is the complex Gauss map of a conformal minimal immersion $M\to\mathbb{R}^3$ which may furthermore be chosen as the real part of a holomorphic null curve $M\to\mathbb{C}^3$. Analogous results are proved for conformal minimal immersions $M\to\mathbb{R}^n$ for any $n>3$. We also show that every conformal minimal immersion $M\to\mathbb{R}^n$ is isotopic through conformal minimal immersions $M\to\mathbb{R}^n$ to a flat one, and we identify the path connected components of the space of all conformal minimal immersio…
Let $f\colon M^{2n}\to\mathbb{R}^{2n+\ell}$, $n \geq 5$, denote a conformal immersion into Euclidean space with codimension $\ell$ of a Kaehler manifold of complex dimension $n$ and free of flat points. For codimensions $\ell=1,2$ we show that such a submanifold can always be locally obtained in a rather simple way, namely, from an isometric immersion of the Kaehler manifold $M^{2n}$ into either $\mathbb{R}^{2n+1}$ or $\mathbb{R}^{2n+2}$, the latter being a class of submanifolds already extensively studied.
Consider a strictly convex bounded regular domain $C$ of $\R^3$. For any arbitrary finite topological type we find a compact Riemann surface $\mathcal{M}$, an open domain $M\subset \mathcal{M}$ with the fixed topological type, and a conformal complete proper minimal immersion $X:M\to C$ which can be extended to a continuous map $X:\overline{M}\to \overline{C}$.
As shown by Gromov-Lawson and Stolz the only obstruction to the existence of positive scalar curvature metrics on closed simply connected manifolds in dimensions at least five appears on spin manifolds and is given by the non-vanishing of the $α$-genus of Hitchin. When unobstructed we shall realize a positive scalar curvature metric by an immersion into Euclidean space whose dimension is uniformly close to the classical Whitney upper bound for smooth immersions. Our main tool is an extrinsic counterpart of the well-known Gromov-Lawson surgery procedure for constructing positive scalar curvatur…
We find a new obstruction for a real Einstein 4-orbifold with an A1-singularity to be a limit of smooth Einstein 4-manifolds. The obstruction is a curvature condition at the singular point. For asymptotically hyperbolic metrics, with boundary at infinity a conformal metric, we prove that if the obstruction vanishes, one can desingularize Einstein orbifolds with such singularities. The Dirichlet problem consists in finding Einstein metrics with given conformal infinity on the boundary: we prove that our obstruction defines a wall in the space of conformal metrics on the boundary, and that all t…
On pseudo-Riemannian manifolds of even dimension $n\geq 4$, with everywhere vanishing (Fefferman-Graham) obstruction tensor, we construct a complex of conformally invariant differential operators. The complex controls the infinitesimal deformations of obstruction-flat structures, and, in the case of Riemannian signature the complex is elliptic.
In this work we present new fundamental tools for studying the variations of the Willmore functional of immersed surfaces into $R^m$. This approach gives for instance a new proof of the existence of a Willmore minimizing embedding of an arbitrary closed surface in arbitrary codimension. We explain how the same approach can solve constraint minimization problems for the Willmore functional. We show in particular that, for a given closed surface and a given conformal class for this surface, there is an immersion in $R^m$, away possibly from isolated branched points, which minimizes the Willmore …
The behavior under conformal change of the renormalized volume coefficients associated to a pseudo-Riemannian metric is investigated. It is shown that they define second order fully nonlinear operators in the conformal factor whose algebraic structure is elucidated via the introduction of "extended obstruction tensors". These together with the Schouten tensor constitute building blocks for the coefficients in the ambient metric expansion. The renormalized volume coefficients have recently been considered by Chang-Fang motivated by comparison with the elementary symmetric functions of the eigen…
The Gauss map of a conformal minimal immersion of an open Riemann surface $M$ into $\mathbb R^3$ is a meromorphic function on $M$. In this paper, we prove that the Gauss map assignment, taking a full conformal minimal immersion $M\to\mathbb R^3$ to its Gauss map, is a Serre fibration. We then determine the homotopy type of the space of meromorphic functions on $M$ that are the Gauss map of a complete full conformal minimal immersion, and show that it is the same as the homotopy type of the space of all continuous maps from $M$ to the 2-sphere. We obtain analogous results for the generalised Ga…
We show that if a compact, oriented 4-manifold admits a coassociative-free immersion into the Euclidean 7-space then its Euler characteristic and signature vanish. Moreover, in the spin case the Gauss map is contractible, so that the immersed manifold is parallelizable. The proof makes use of homotopy theory in particular obstruction theory. As a further application we prove a non-existence result for some infinite families of 4-manifolds that can not be addressed previously. We give concrete examples of parallelizable 4-manifolds with complicated non-simply-connected topology.
We show, that higher analogs of the Willmore functional, defined on the space of immersions M^2\rightarrow R^3, where M^2 is a two-dimensional torus, R^3 is the 3-dimensional Euclidean space are invariant under conformal transformations of R^3. This hypothesis was formulated recently by I.A.Taimanov (dg-ga/9610013). Higher analogs of the Willmore functional are defined in terms of the Modified Novikov-Veselov hierarchy. This soliton hierarchy is associated with the zero-energy scattering problem for the two-dimensional Dirac operator.
We prove that compact 3-manifolds $M$ of constant curvature +1 with boundary a minimal surface are locally naturally parametrized by the conformal class of the boundary metric $γ$ in the Teichmuller space of $\partial M$, when $genus(\partial M) \geq 2$. Stronger results are obtained in the case of genus 1 boundary, giving in particular a new proof of Brendle's solution of the Lawson conjecture. The results generalize to constant mean curvature surfaces, and surfaces in flat and hyperbolic 3-manifolds.
In this paper we present some extensions of the celebrated finite point conformal compactification theorem of Huber \cite{Hu57} for complete open surfaces to general dimensions based on the n-Laplace equations in conformal geometry. We are able to conclude a domain in the round sphere has to be the sphere deleted finitely many points if it can be endowed with a complete conformal metric with the negative part of the smallest Ricci curvature satisfying some integrable conditions. Our proof is based on the strengthened version of the Arsove-Huber's type theorem on n-superharmonic functions in ou…
Constrained Willmore surfaces are conformal immersions of Riemann surfaces that are critical points of the Willmore energy $W=\int H^2$ under compactly supported infinitesimal conformal variations. Examples include all constant mean curvature surfaces in space forms. In this paper we investigate more generally the critical points of arbitrary geometric functionals on the space of immersions under the constraint that the admissible variations infinitesimally preserve the conformal structure. Besides constrained Willmore surfaces we discuss in some detail examples of constrained minimal and volu…
In this paper we find, for any arbitrary finite topological type, a compact Riemann surface $\mathcal{M},$ an open domain $M\subset\mathcal{M}$ with the fixed topological type, and a conformal complete minimal immersion $X:M\to\R^3$ which can be extended to a continuous map $X:\bar{M}\to\R^3,$ such that $X_{|\partial M}$ is an embedding and the Hausdorff dimension of $X(\partial M)$ is $1.$ We also prove that complete minimal surfaces are dense in the space of minimal surfaces spanning a finite set of closed curves in $\R^3$, endowed with the topology of the Hausdorff distance.
It is shown that the variational derivative of the integral of Branson's Q-curvature is the ambient obstruction tensor of Fefferman-Graham. A classification of irreducible conformally invariant tensors modulo quadratic and higher degree terms in curvature is established.
We study the space of conformal immersions of a 2-torus into the 4-sphere. The moduli space of generalized Darboux transforms of such an immersed torus has the structure of a Riemann surface, the spectral curve. This Riemann surface arises as the zero locus of the determinant of a holomorphic family of Dirac type operators parameterized over the complexified dual torus. The kernel line bundle of this family over the spectral curve describes the generalized Darboux transforms of the conformally immersed torus. If the spectral curve has finite genus the kernel bundle can be extended to the compa…
For every two-dimensional torus $T^2$ and every $k\in \mathbb{N}$, $k\ge 3$, we construct a conformal Willmore immersion $f:T^2\to \mathbb{R}^4$ with exactly one point of density $k$ and Willmore energy $4πk$. Moreover, we show that the energy value $8π$ cannot be attained by such an immersion. Additionally, we characterize the branched double covers $T^2\to S^2 \times \{0\}$ as the only branched conformal immersions, up to Möbius transformations of $\mathbb{R}^4$, from a torus into $\mathbb{R}^4$ with at least one branch point and Willmore energy $8π$. Using a perturbation argument in order t…
We characterise the maps into the space of $2$-spheres in $S^n$ that are the conformal Gauss maps of conformal immersions of a surface. In particular, we give an invariant formulation and efficient proof of a characterisation, due to Dorfmeister--Wang \cites{DorWan13,DorWan}, of the harmonic maps that are conformal Gauss maps of Willmore surfaces.
A Riemannian or pseudo-Riemannian (or conformal) structure is conformally Einstein if and only if there is a suitably generic parallel section of a certain vector bundle -- the so-called standard conformal tractor bundle. We show that this characterisation leads to a systematic approach to constructing obstructions to conformally Einstein metrics. Relaxing the requirement that the parallel tractor field be generic gives a natural generalisation of the Einstein equations.
Motivated by recent progress on a spinorial analogue of the Yamabe problem in the geometric literature, we study a conformally invariant spinor field equation on the $m$-sphere, $m\geq2$. Via variational methods and the spinorial Weierstraß representation, we study the problem of prescribing mean curvature for the immersion $S^2\to\mathbb{R}^3$.
We study minimal immersions of closed surfaces (of genus $g \ge 2$) in hyperbolic 3-manifolds, with prescribed data $(σ, tα)$, where $σ$ is a conformal structure on a topological surface $S$, and $αdz^2$ is a holomorphic quadratic differential on the surface $(S,σ)$. We show that, for each $t \in (0,τ_0)$ for some $τ_0 > 0$, depending only on $(σ, α)$, there are at least two minimal immersions of closed surface of prescribed second fundamental form $Re(tα)$ in the conformal structure $σ$. Moreover, for $t$ sufficiently large, there exists no such minimal immersion. Asymptotically, as $t \to 0$…
