The (n+1)-sphere contains a simple family of constant mean curvature (CMC) hypersurfaces which are products of lower-dimensional spheres called the generalized Clifford hypersurfaces. This paper demonstrates that new, topologically non-trivial CMC hypersurfaces resembling a pair of neighbouring generalized Clifford tori connected to each other by small catenoidal bridges at a sufficiently symmetric configuration of points can be constructed by perturbative PDE methods. That is, one can create an approximate solution by gluing a rescaled catenoid into the neighbourhood of each point; and then one can show that a perturbation of this approximate hypersurface exists which satisfies the CMC condition. The results of this paper generalize those of the authors in math.DG/0511742.
We construct embedded closed minimal surfaces in the round three-sphere, resembling two parallel copies of the Clifford torus, joined by m^2 small catenoidal bridges symmetrically arranged along a square lattice of points on the torus.
Let $Σ^2 \subset M^3$ be a minimal surface of index 0 or 1. Assume that a neighborhood of $Σ$ can be foliated by constant mean curvature (cmc) hypersurfaces. We use min-max theory and the catenoid estimate to construct $\varepsilon$-cmc doublings of $Σ$ for small $\varepsilon > 0$. Such cmc doublings were previously constructed for minimal hypersurfaces $Σ^n \subset M^{n+1}$ with $n+1\ge 4$ by Pacard and Sun using gluing methods.
In this paper we construct smooth Riemannian metrics on the sphere which admit smooth Zoll families of minimal hypersurfaces. This generalizes a theorem of Guillemin for the case of geodesics. The proof uses the Nash-Moser Inverse Function Theorem in the tame maps setting of Hamilton. This answers a question of Yau on perturbations of minimal hypersurfaces in positive Ricci curvature. We also consider the case of the projective space and characterize those metrics on the sphere with minimal equators.
We prove Harnack inequalities for hypersurfaces flowing on the unit sphere by $p$-powers of a strictly monotone, 1-homogeneous, convex, curvature function $f$, $0<p\leq 1.$ If $f$ is the mean curvature, we obtain stronger Harnack inequalities.
We introduce canonical principal parameters on any strongly regular minimal surface in the three dimensional sphere and prove that any such a surface is determined up to a motion by its normal curvature function satisfying the Sinh-Poisson equation. We obtain a classification theorem for bi-umbilical hypersurfaces of type number two. We prove that any minimal hypersurface of type number two with involutive distribution is generated by a minimal surface in the three-dimensional Euclidean space, or in the three dimensional sphere. Thus we prove that the theory of minimal hypersurfaces of type nu…
The Clifford tori in the 3-sphere are a one-parameter family of flat, two-dimensional, constant mean curvature (CMC) surfaces. This paper demonstrates that new, topologically non-trivial CMC surfaces resembling a pair of neighbouring Clifford tori connected at a sub-lattice consisting of at least two points by small catenoidal bridges can be constructed by perturbative PDE methods. That is, one can create an approximate solution by gluing a rescaled catenoid into the neighbourhood of each sub-lattice point; and then one can show that a perturbation of this approximate submanifold exists which …
We construct closed embedded minimal surfaces in the round three-sphere, resembling two parallel copies of the equatorial two-sphere, joined by small catenoidal bridges symmetrically arranged either along two parallel circles of the equator, or along the equatorial circle and the poles. To carry out these constructions we refine and reorganize the doubling methodology in ways which we expect to apply also to further constructions. In particular we introduce what we call linearized doubling, which is an intermediate step where singular solutions to the linearized equation are constructed subjec…
The techniques developed by Butscher in arXiv:math/0703469 for constructing constant mean curvature (CMC) hypersurfaces in the (n+1)-sphere by gluing together spherical building blocks are generalized to handle less symmetric initial configurations. The outcome is that the approximately CMC hypersurface obtained by gluing the initial configuration together can be perturbed into an exactly CMC hypersurface only when certain global geometric conditions are met. These `balancing conditions' are analogous to those that must be satisfied in the `classical' context of gluing constructions of CMC hyp…
Four constructions of constant mean curvature (CMC) hypersurfaces in the (n+1)-sphere are given, which should be considered analogues of `classical' constructions that are possible for CMC hypersurfaces in Euclidean space. First, Delaunay-like hypersurfaces, consisting roughly of a chain of hyperspheres winding multiple times around an equator, are shown to exist for all values of the mean curvature. Second, a hypersurface is constructed which consists of two chains of spheres winding around a pair of orthogonal equators, showing that Delaunay-like hypersurfaces can be fused together in a symm…
We study properties of non-minimal biharmonic hypersurfaces of spheres. The main result is a CMC Unique Continuation Theorem for biharmonic hypersurfaces of spheres. We then deduce new rigidity theorems to support the Conjecture that biharmonic submanifolds of Euclidean spheres must be of constant mean curvature.
We prove rigidity for hypersurfaces with boundary in the unit $(n+1)$-sphere with scalar curvature bounded below by $n(n-1)$. Under appropriate boundary conditions, the hypersurfaces are shown to be part of the equatorial spheres. The lower bound $n(n-1)$ is critical in the sense that the hypersurface may contain geodesic points and some natural differential operators are fully degenerate at geodesic points. We overcome the difficulty by studying the geometry of level sets of a height function, via new geometric inequalities. Some rigidity results of hyperplanes and generalized cylinders are a…
In this note we improve a gap result concerning the range of the mean curvature of complete $CMC$ proper-biharmonic hypersurfaces in unit Euclidean spheres.
We show the regularity of, and derive a-priori estimates for (weakly) harmonic maps from a Riemannian manifold into a Euclidean sphere under the assumption that the image avoids some neighborhood of a half-equator. The proofs combine constructions of strictly convex functions and the regularity theory of quasi-linear elliptic systems. We apply these results to the spherical and Euclidean Bernstein problems for minimal hypersurfaces, obtaining new conditions under which compact minimal hypersurfaces in spheres or complete minimal hypersurfaces in Euclidean spaces are trivial.
In earlier work of NK new closed embedded smooth minimal surfaces in the round three-sphere $\mathbb{S}^3(1)$ were constructed, each resembling two parallel copies of the equatorial two-sphere $\mathbb{S}^2_{eq}$ joined by small catenoidal bridges, with the catenoidal bridges concentrating along two parallel circles, or the equatorial circle and the poles. In this sequel we generalize those constructions so that the catenoidal bridges can concentrate along an arbitrary number of parallel circles, with the further option to include bridges at the poles. The current constructions follow the Line…
We find a monotone quantity along the inverse mean curvature flow and use it to prove an Alexandrov-Fenchel-type inequality for strictly convex hypersurfaces in the $n$-dimensional sphere, $n \geq 3$.
Building on work of Kapouleas and Yang, we construct sequences of minimal surfaces embedded in the round 3-sphere which converge to the Clifford torus counted with multiplicity two and have second fundamental form blowing up at every point of the torus and genus tending to infinity. Each surface in a given sequence resembles a pair of tori close to the limit torus and joined by many catenoidal bridges arranged over a rectangular lattice on the limit. The collection of sequences is indexed by the ratio of the lengths of the lattice edges, which may be any prescribed positive rational. Unlike th…
In this paper, we prove that minimal hypersurfaces when $n\geq 3$ and nonzero constant mean curvature hypersurfaces when $n\geq2$ foliated by spheres in parallel horizontal hyperplanes in ${\mathbb{H}}^n \times \mathbb{R}$ must be rotationally symmetric.
It is known that the totally umbilical hypersurfaces in the (n+1)-dimensional spheres are characterized as the only hypersurfaces with weak stability index 0. That is, a compact hypersurface with constant mean curvature, cmc, in S^{n+1}, different from an Euclidean sphere, must have stability index greater than or equal to 1. In this paper we prove that the weak stability index of any non-totally umbilical compact hypersurface M\subset S^{n+1} with cmc cannot take the values 1,2,3... n.
We give several construction methods and use them to produce many examples of proper biharmonic maps including biharmonic tori of any dimension in Euclidean spheres (Theorem 2.2, Corollaries 2.3, 2.4, and 2.6), biharmonic maps between spheres (Theorem 2.9) and into spheres (Theorem 2.10) via orthogonal multiplications and eigenmaps. We also study biharmonic graphs of maps, derive the equation for a function whose graph is a biharmonic hypersurface in a Euclidean space, and give an equivalent formulation of Chen's conjecture on biharmonic hypersurfaces by using the biahrmonic graph equation (Th…
This is a survey of local and global classification results concerning Dupin hypersurfaces in $S^n$ (or ${\bf R}^n$) that have been obtained in the context of Lie sphere geometry. The emphasis is on results that relate Dupin hypersurfaces to isoparametric hypersurfaces in spheres. Along with these classification results, many important concepts from Lie sphere geometry, such as curvature spheres, Lie curvatures, and Legendre lifts of submanifolds of $S^n$ (or ${\bf R}^n$), are described in detail. The paper also contains several important constructions of Dupin hypersurfaces with certain speci…
We are studying a relationship between isoparametric hypersurfaces in spheres with four distinct principal curvatures and the moment maps of certain Hamiltonian actions. In this paper, we consider the isoparametric hypersurfaces obtained from the isotropy representations of compact irreducible Hermitian symmetric spaces of rank two. We prove that the Cartan-Münzner polynomials of these hypersurfaces can be written as squared-norms of the moment maps for some Hamiltonian actions. The proof is based on the structure theory of symmetric spaces.
A hypersurface $M$ in ${\bf R}^n$ or $S^n$ is said to be Dupin if along each curvature surface, the corresponding principal curvature is constant. A Dupin hypersurface is said to be proper Dupin if each principal curvature has constant multiplicity on $M$, i.e., the number of distinct principal curvatures is constant on $M$. The notions of Dupin and proper Dupin hypersurfaces in ${\bf R}^n$ or $S^n$ can be generalized to the setting of Lie sphere geometry, and these properties are easily seen to be invariant under Lie sphere transformations. This makes Lie sphere geometry an effective setting …
In this paper, firstly, inspired by Natário's recent work \cite{Na}, we use the isoperimetric inequality to derive some Alexandrov-Fenchel type inequalities for closed convex hypersurfaces in the hyperbolic space $\H^{n+1}$ and in the sphere $\SS^{n+1}$. We also get the rigidity in the spherical case. Secondly, we use the inverse mean curvature flow in sphere \cite{gerh,Mak-Sch} to prove an optimal Sobolev type inequality for closed convex hypersurfaces in the sphere.
The classification of isoparametric hypersurfaces in spheres with four or six different principal curvatures is still not complete. In this paper we develop a structural approach that may be helpful for a classification. Instead of working with the isoparametric hypersurface family in the sphere, we consider the associated Lagrangian submanifold of the real Grassmannian of oriented $2$-planes in $\mathbb{R}^{n+2}$. We obtain new geometric insights into classical invariants and identities in terms of the geometry of the Lagrangian submanifold.
We prove a rigidity result in the sphere which allows us to generalize a result about smooth convex hypersurfaces in the sphere by Do Carmo-Warner to convex $C^2$-hypersurfaces. We apply these results to prove $C^{1,β}$-convergence of inverse F-curvature flows in the sphere to an equator in \mathbb{S}^{n+1} for embedded, closed, strictly convex initial hypersurfaces. The result holds for large classes of curvature functions including the mean curvature and arbitrary powers of the Gauss curvature. We use this result to prove Alexandrov-Fenchel type inequalities in the sphere.
Using a new estimate for the Peng-Terng invariant and the multiple-parameter method, we verify a rigidity theorem on the stronger version of Chern Conjecture for minimal hypersurfaces in spheres. More precisely, we prove that if $M$ is a compact minimal hypersurface in $\mathbb{S}^{n+1}$ whose squared length of the second fundamental form satisfies $0\leq S-n\leq\frac{n}{18}$, then $S\equiv n$ and $M$ is a Clifford torus.
We exhibit the first set of examples of non-bumpy metrics on the $(n+1)$-sphere ($2\leq n\leq 6$) in which the varifold associated with the two-parameter min-max construction must be a multiplicity-two minimal $n$-sphere. This is proved by a new area-and-separation estimate for certain minimal hypersurfaces with Morse index two inspired by an early work of Colding-Minicozzi. We also construct non-bumpy projective spaces in which the first min-max hypersurfaces are one-sided, and non-bumpy balls in which the free boundary min-max hypersurfaces are improper.
The method of moving frames in Lie sphere geometry has produced significant results in the classification of Dupin hypersurfaces in spheres. What is the secret of its effectiveness? The answer emerges in the classification of nonumbilic isoparametric surfaces in the space form geometries. Using the method of moving frames, the proof of this classification is an elementary exercise. The same proof classifies the cyclides of Dupin in Möbius geometry and finally in Lie sphere geometry, where all nonumbilic Dupin immersions are Lie sphere congruent to each other.
We obtain a complete classification of proper biharmonic hypersurfaces with at most three distinct principal curvatures in sphere spaces with arbitrary dimension. Precisely, together with known results of Balmuş-Montaldo-Oniciuc, we prove that compact orientable proper biharmonic hypersurfaces with at most three distinct principal curvatures in sphere spaces $\mathbb S^{n+1}$ are either the hypersphere $\mathbb S^n(1/\sqrt2)$ or the Clifford hypersurface $\mathbb S^{n_1}(1/\sqrt2)\times\mathbb S^{n_2}(1/\sqrt2)$ with $n_1+n_2=n$ and $n_1\neq n_2$. Moreover, we also show that there does not exi…
We prove a topological rigidity theorem for closed hypersurfaces of the Euclidean sphere and of an elliptic space form. It asserts that, under a lower bound hypothesis on the absolute value of the principal curvatures, the hypersurface is diffeomorphic to a sphere or to a quotient of a sphere by a group action. We also prove another topological rigidity result for hypersurfaces of the sphere that involves the spherical image of its usual Gauss map.
Let $M^n$ be an $n$-dimensional complete and locally conformally flat hypersurface in the unit sphere $\mathbb{S}^{n+1}$ with constant scalar curvature $n(n-1)$. We show that if the total curvature $\left( \int _ { M } | H | ^ { n } d v \right) ^ { \frac { 1 } { n } }$ of $M$ is sufficiently small, then $M^n$ is totally geodesic.
In this short note we extend an estimate due to J. Simons on the first stability eigenvalue of minimal hypersurfaces in spheres to the singular setting. Specifically, we show that any singular minimal hypersurface in $S^{n+1}$, which is not totally geodesic and satisfies the α-structural hypothesis, has first stability eigenvalue at most -2n, with equality if and only if it is a product of two round spheres. The equality case was settled independently in the classical setting by Wu and Perdomo.
We consider the problem $F=f(ν)$ for strictly convex, closed hypersurfaces in $S^{n+1}$ and solve it for curvature functions $F$ the inverses of which are of class $(K)$.
We consider the smooth inverse mean curvature flow of strictly convex hypersurfaces with boundary embedded in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1},$ which are perpendicular to the unit sphere from the inside. We prove that the flow hypersurfaces converge to the embedding of a flat disk in the norm of $C^{1,β},$ $β<1.$
In this paper, we study the first eigenvalue of Jacobi operator on an $n$-dimensional non-totally umbilical compact hypersurface with constant mean curvature $H$ in the unit sphere $S^{n+1}(1)$. We give an optimal upper bound for the first eigenvalue of Jacobi operator, which only depends on the mean curvature $H$ and the dimension $n$.
Alexandrov's soap bubble theorem asserts that spheres are the only connected closed embedded hypersurfaces in the Euclidean space with constant mean curvature. The theorem can be extended to space forms and it holds for more general functions of the principal curvatures. In this short review, we discuss quantitative stability results regarding Alexandrov's theorem which have been obtained by the author in recent years. In particular, we consider hypersurfaces having mean curvature close to a constant and we quantitatively describe the proximity to a single sphere or to a collection of tangent …
The aim of this paper is to verify that the study of generic conformally flat hypersurfaces in 4-dimensional space forms is reduced to a surface theory in the standard 3-sphere. The conformal structure of generic conformally flat (local-)hypersurfaces is characterized as conformally flat (local-)3-metrics with the Guichard condition. Then, there is a certain class of orthogonal analytic (local-)Riemannian 2-metrics with constant Gauss curvature -1 such that any 2-metric of the class gives rise to a one-parameter family of conformally flat 3-metrics with the Guichard condition. In this paper, w…
The Alexandrov Soap Bubble Theorem asserts that the distance spheres are the only embedded closed connected hypersurfaces in space forms having constant mean curvature. The theorem can be extended to more general functions of the principal curvatures $f(k_1,\ldots,k_{n-1})$ satisfying suitable conditions. In this paper we give sharp quantitative estimates of proximity to a single sphere for Alexandrov Soap Bubble Theorem in space forms when the curvature operator $f$ is close to a constant. Under an assumption that prevents bubbling, the proximity to a single sphere is quantified in terms of t…
Let M be a closed minimal hypersurface in 5-dimensional Euclidean sphere with constant nonnegative scalar curvature. We prove that, if the sum of the cubes of all principal curvatures and the number of distinct principal curvatures are constant, then M is isoparametric. Moreover, We give all possible values for squared length of the second fundamental form of M. This result provides another piece of supporting evidence to the Chern conjecture.
In this paper, we study $n$-dimensional hypersurfaces with constant $m^{\text{th}}$ mean curvature in a unit sphere $S^{n+1}(1)$ and construct many compact nontrivial embedded hypersurfaces with constant $m^{\text{th}}$ mean curvature $H_m>0$ in $S^{n+1}(1)$, for $1\leq m\leq n-1$. In particular, if the $4^{\text{th}}$ mean curvature $H_4$ takes value between $\dfrac{1}{(\tan \fracπ{k})^4}$ and $\dfrac{k^4-4}{n(n-4)}$ for any integer $k\geq3$, then there exists an $n$-dimensional ($n\geq 5$) compact nontrivial embedded hypersurface with constant $H_4$ in $S^{n+1}(1)$.
In this paper, we study $n$-dimensional complete minimal hypersurfaces in a unit sphere. We prove that an $n$-dimensional complete minimal hypersurface with constant scalar curvature in a unit sphere with $f_3$ constant is isometric to the totally geodesic sphere or the Clifford torus if $S\leq 1.8252 n-0.712898$, where $S$ denotes the squared norm of the second fundamental form of this hypersurface.
In this paper, I study the isoparametric hypersurfaces in a Randers sphere $(S^n,F)$ of constant flag curvature, with the navigation datum $(h,W)$. I prove that an isoparametric hypersurface $M$ for the standard round sphere $(S^n,h)$ which is tangent to $W$ remains isoparametric for $(S^n,F)$ after the navigation process. This observation provides a special class of isoparametric hypersurfaces in $(S^n,F)$, which can be equivalently described as the regular level sets of isoparametric functions $f$ satisfying $-f$ is transnormal. I provide a classification for these special isoparametric hype…
In this paper, firstly, we show the existence of a compact embedded constant mean curvature (CMC) hypersurface $Σ_1$ in $\mathbb{S}^{2n}$ of the type $S^{n-1} \times S^{n-1} \times S^{1}$. Moreover, the hypersurface $Σ_1$ exhibits $O(n)\times O(n)$ symmetry. Secondly, we show that there exists a compact embedded CMC-hypersurface $Σ_2 \subset \mathbb{S}^{3n-1}$ of the type $S^{n-1} \times S^{n-1} \times S^{n-1} \times S^{1}$. These results generalize the results of Carlotto and Schulz.
In [5], Colding-Ilmanen-Minicozzi-White showed that within the class of closed smooth self-shrinkers in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$, the entropy is uniquely minimized at the round sphere. They conjectured that, for $2\leq n\leq 6$, the round sphere minimizes the entropy among all closed smooth hypersurfaces. Using an appropriate weak mean curvature flow, we prove their conjecture. For these dimensions, our approach also gives a new proof of the main result of [5] and extends its conclusions to compact singular self-shrinkers.
We prove that the boundary of a (not necessarily connected) bounded smooth set with constant nonlocal mean curvature is a sphere. More generally, and in contrast with what happens in the classical case, we show that the Lipschitz constant of the nonlocal mean curvature of such a boundary controls its $C^2$-distance from a single sphere. The corresponding stability inequality is obtained with a sharp decay rate.
