Totally real immersions $f$ of a closed real surface $Σ$ in an almost complex surface $M$ are completely classified, up to homotopy through totally real immersions, by suitably defined homotopy classes $\frak{M}(f)$ of mappings from $Σ$ into a specific real 5-manifold $E(M)$, while $\frak{M}(f)$ themselves are subject to a single cohomology constraint. This follows from Gromov's observation that totally real immersions satisfy the h-principle. For the receiving complex surfaces $C^2$, $CP^1\times CP^1$, $CP^2$ and $CP^2 # m\bar{CP^2}$, $m=1,2,...,7$, and all $Σ$ (or, $CP^2 # 8\bar{CP^2}$ and all orientable $Σ$), we illustrate the above nonconstructive result with explicit examples of immersions realizing all possible equivalence classes. We also determine which equivalence classes contain totally real embeddings, and provide examples of such embeddings for all classes that contain them.
The aim of this short article is to investigate the possibility of existence of totally umbilical isometric immersions in R^3 with isothermal parametrization and harmonic metric.
In this paper we consider on a complete Riemannian manifold $M$ an immersed totally geodesic hypersurface $\Si$ existing together with an immersed submanifold $N$ without focal points. No curvature condition is needed. We obtained several connectedness results relating the topologies of $M$ and $\Si$ which depend on the codimension of $N$.
We define a `Higgs field' for a four-dimensional spin$^c$-manifold to be a smooth section of its positive half-spinor bundle, transverse to the zero section, and defined only up to a positive functional factor. This is intended to be a generalization of almost complex structures on real four-manifolds, each of which may in fact be treated as a Higgs field without zeros for a specific spin$^c$-structure. The notions of totally real or pseudoholomorphic immersions of real surfaces in an almost complex manifold of real dimension four have straighforward generalizations to the case of a spin$^c$-m…
We show that, for a closed orientable n-manifold, with n not congruent to 3 modulo 4, the existence of a CR-regular embedding into complex (n-1)-space ensures the existence of a totally real embedding into complex n-space. This implies that a closed orientable (4k+1)-manifold with non-vanishing Kervaire semi-characteristic possesses no CR-regular embedding into complex 4k-space. We also pay special attention to the cases of CR-regular embeddings of spheres and of simply-connected 5-manifolds.
In this paper, we study geometry of totally real minimal surfaces in the complex hyperquadric $Q_{N-2}$, and obtain some characterizations of the harmonic sequence generated by these minimal immersions. For totally real flat surfaces that are minimal in both $Q_{N-2}$ and $\mathbb{C}P^{N-1}$, we determine them for $N=4, 5, 6$, and give a classification theorem when they are Clifford solutions.
For a given simply connected Riemannian surface Sigma, we relate the problem of finding minimal isometric immersions of Sigma into S^2 x R or H^2 x R to a system of two partial differential equations on Sigma. We prove that a constant intrinsic curvature minimal surface in S^2 x R or H^2 x R is either totally geodesic or part of an associate surface of a certain limit of catenoids in H^2 x R. We also prove that if a non constant curvature Riemannian surface admits a continuous one-parameter family of minimal isometric immersions into S^2 x R or H^2 x R, then all these immersions are associate.
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…
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 $M$.
This paper is devoted to the study of the global properties of harmonically immersed Riemann surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^3.$ We focus on the geometry of complete harmonic immersions with quasiconformal Gauss map, and in particular, of those with finite total curvature. We pay special attention to the construction of new examples with significant geometry.
We obtain a basic inequality involving the Laplacian of the warping function and the squared mean curvature of any warped product isometrically immersed in a Riemannian manifold without assuming any restriction on the Riemann curvature tensor of the ambient manifold. Applying this general theory, we obtain basic inequalities involving the Laplacian of the warping function and the squared mean curvature of $C$-totally real warped product submanifolds of $(κ,μ) $-space forms, Sasakian space forms and non-Sasakian $(κ,μ) $-manifolds. Then we obtain obstructions to the existence of minimal isometr…
In classical surface theory there are but few known examples of surfaces admitting nontrivial isometric deformations and fewer still non-simply-connected ones. We consider the isometric deformability question for an immersion x: M \to R^3 of an oriented non-simply-connected surface with constant mean curvature H. We prove that the space of all isometric immersions of M with constant mean curvature H is, modulo congruences of R^3, either finite or a circle. When it is a circle then, for the immersion x, every cycle in M has vanishing force and, when H is not 0, also vanishing torque. Our work g…
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.
We consider minimal immersions in MxR. We study existence and uniqueness of associate and conjugate isometric immersions to a given minimal surface. We use the theory of univalent harmonic map between surfaces. Then we study the geometry of associate minimal vertical graphs. We prove that an associate surface of a vertical graph on a convex domain is a graph. In the classical theory it is a theorem of R. Krust.
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…
We consider the class of differential equations that describe pseudo-spherical surfaces of the form $u\_t=F(u,u\_x,u\_{xx})$ and $u\_{xt}=F(u, u\_x)$ given in Chern-Tenenblat \cite{ChernTenenblat} and Rabelo-Tenenblat \cite{RabeloTenenblat90}. We answer the following question: Given a pseudo-spherical surface determined by a solution $u$ of such an equation, do the coefficients of the second fundamental form of the local isometric immersion in $\mathbb{R}^3$ depend on a jet of finite order of $u$? We show that, except for the sine-Gordon equation, where the coefficients depend on a jet of orde…
We consider the class of evolution equations that describe pseudo-spherical surfaces of the form u\_t = F (u, $\partial$u/$\partial$x, ..., $\partial$^k u/$\partial$x^k), k $\ge$ 2 classified by Chern-Tenenblat. This class of equations is characterized by the property that to each solution of a differential equation within this class, there corresponds a 2-dimensional Riemannian metric of curvature-1. We investigate the following problem: given such a metric, is there a local isometric immersion in R 3 such that the coefficients of the second fundamental form of the surface depend on a jet of …
In this paper, we provide families of second order non-linear partial differential equations, describing pseudospherical surfaces (pss equations), with the property of having local isometric immersions in E^3, with principal curvatures depending on finite-order jets of solutions of the differential equation. These equations occupy a particularly special place amongst pss equations, since a series of recent papers [2, 7, 11, 12, 13], on several classes of pss equations, seemed to suggest that only the sine-Gordon equation had the above property. Explicit examples are given, which include the sh…
In this paper, we study biharmonic isometric immersions of a surface into and biharmonic Riemannian submersion from 3-dimensional Berger spheres. We obtain a classification of proper biharmonic isometric immersions of a surface with constant mean curvature into Berger 3-spheres. We also give a complete classification of proper biharmonic Hopf tori in Berger 3-sphere. For Riemannian submersions, we prove that a Riemannian submersion from Berger 3-spheres into a surface is biharmonic if and only if it is harmonic.
We study biminimal immersions, that is immersions which are critical points of the bienergy for normal variations with fixed energy. We give a geometrical description of the Euler-Lagrange equation associated to biminimal immersions for: i) biminimal curves in a Riemannian manifold, with particular care to the case of curves in a space form ii) isometric immersions of codimension one in a Riemannian manifold, in particular for surfaces of a three-dimensional manifold. We describe two methods to construct families of biminimal surfaces using both Riemannian and horizontally homothetic submersio…
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.
The aim of this paper is to investigate the differential geometry of immersed surfaces in three-dimensional normed spaces from the viewpoint of affine differential geometry. We endow the surface with a useful Riemannian metric which is closely related to normal curvature, and from this we re-calculate the Minkowski Gaussian and mean curvatures. These curvatures are also re-obtained in terms of ambient affine distance functions, and as a consequence we characterize minimal surfaces as the solutions of a certain differential equation. We also investigate in which cases it is possible that the af…
In this article, we study constant mean curvature isometric immersions into $\mathbb{S}^2 \times \mathbb{R}$ and $\mathbb{H}^2 \times \mathbb{R}$ and we classify these isometric immersions when the surface has constant intrinsic curvature. As applications, we use the sister surface correspondence to classify the constant mean curvature surfaces with constant intrinsic curvature in the $3-$dimensional homogenous manifolds $\mathbb{E}(κ, τ)$ and we use the Torralbo-Urbano correspondence to classify the parallel mean curvature surfaces in $\mathbb{S}^2 \times \mathbb{S}^2$ and $\mathbb{H}^2 \time…
We give a spinorial characterization of isometrically immersed surfaces of arbitrary signature into 3-dimensional pseudo-Riemannian space forms. For Lorentzian surfaces, this generalizes a recent work of the first author in $\mathbb{R}^{2,1}$ to other Lorentzian space forms. We also characterize immersions of Riemannian surfaces in these spaces. From this we can deduce analogous results for timelike immersions of Lorentzian surfaces in space forms of corresponding signature, as well as for spacelike and timelike immersions of surfaces of signature (0,2), hence achieving a complete spinorial de…
Let N be a complete, homogeneously regular Riemannian manifold of dimension greater than 2 and let M be a compact submanifold of N. Let $Σ$ be a compact orientable surface with boundary. We show that for any continuous $f: (Σ, \partial Σ) \rightarrow (N, M)$ for which the induced homomorphism on certain fundamental groups is injective, there exists a branched minimal immersion of $Σ$ solving the free boundary problem $(Σ, \partial Σ) \rightarrow (N, M)$, and minimizing area among all maps which induce the same action on the fundamental groups as f. Furthermore, under certain nonnegativity assu…
We give a necessary and sufficient condition for an n-dimensional Riemannian manifold to be isometrically immersed in S^n x R or H^n x R in terms of its first and second fundamental forms and of the projection of the vertical vector field on its tangent plane. We deduce the existence of a one-parameter family of isometric minimal deformations of a given minimal surface in S^2 x R or H^2 x R, obtained by rotating the shape operator.
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…
Let $M$ be a space-like surface immersed in a 4-dimensional pseudo-Riemannian space form $R^4_2(c)$ with constant sectional curvature $c$ and index two. In the first part of this article, we prove that the Gauss curvature $K$, the normal curvature $K^D$, and mean curvature vector $H$ of $M$ satisfy the general inequality: $K+K^D\geq H,H +c$. In the second part, we investigate space-like minimal surfaces in $R^4_2(c)$ which satisfy the equality case of the inequality identically. Several classification results in this respect are then obtained.
An equivariant minimal surface in $\mathbb{CH}^n$ is a minimal map of the Poincaré disc into $\mathbb{CH}^n$ which intertwines two actions of the fundamental group of a closed surface $Σ$: a Fuchsian representation on the disc and an irreducible action by isometries on $\mathbb{CH}^n$. The moduli space of these can been studied by relating it to the nilpotent cone in each moduli space of $PU(n,1)$-Higgs bundles over the conformal surface corresponding to the map. By providing a necessary condition for points on this nilpotent cone to be smooth this article shows that away from the points corre…
We replace the usual Convex Integration formula by a Corrugation Process and introduce the notion of Kuiper differential relations. This notion provides a natural framework for the construction of solutions with self-similarity properties. We consider the case of the totally real relation, we prove that it is Kuiper and we state a totally real isometric embedding theorem. We then show that the totally real isometric embeddings obtained by the Corrugation Process exhibits a self-similarity property. Kuiper relations also enable a uniform expression of the Corrugation Process that no longer invo…
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…
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.
The family of Willmore immersions from a Riemann surface into $S^{n+2}$ can be divided naturally into the subfamily of Willmore surfaces conformally equivalent to a minimal surface in $\R^{n+2}$ and those which are not conformally equivalent to a minimal surface in $\R^{n+2}$. On the level of their conformal Gauss maps into $Gr_{1,3}(\R^{1,n+3})=SO^+(1,n+3)/SO^+(1,3)\times SO(n)$ these two classes of Willmore immersions into $S^{n+2}$ correspond to conformally harmonic maps for which every image point, considered as a 4-dimensional Lorentzian subspace of $\R^{1,n+3}$, contains a fixed lightlik…
The class of differential equations describing pseudospherical surfaces enjoys important integrability properties which manifest themselves by the existence of infinite hierarchies of conservation laws (both local and non-local) and the presence associated linear problems. It thus contains many important known examples of integrable equations, like the sine-Gordon, Liouville, KdV, mKdV, Camassa-Holm and Degasperis-Procesi equations, and is also home to many new families of integrable equations. Our paper is concerned with the question of the local isometric immersion in ${\bf E}^{3}$ of the ps…
The class of differential equations describing pseudo-spherical surfaces, first introduced by Chern and Tenenblat [3], is characterized by the property that to each solution of a differential equation, within the class, there corresponds a 2-dimensional Riemannian metric of curvature equal to $-1$. The class of differential equations describing pseudo-spherical surfaces carries close ties to the property of complete integrability, as manifested by the existence of infinite hierarchies of conservation laws and associated linear problems. As such, it contains many important known examples of int…
For fixed large genus, we construct families of complete immersed minimal surfaces in R3 with four ends and dihedral symmetries. The families exist for all large genus and at an appropriate scale degenerate to the plane.
We construct new special Lagrangian submanifolds in complex Euclidean space using a pair of minimal Legendrian submanifolds in odd-dimensional spheres and certain Lagrangian surface belonging to a family that can be considered as a generalization of the special Lagrangian surfaces in complex Euclidean plane. Our examples include those invariant under the standard action of SO(p+1)xSO(q+1) on C^n = C^(p+1) x C^(q+1), n=p+q+2.
We study non-degenerate, totally umbilical surfaces of a special class of pseudo-Riemannian manifolds, namely Walker three-manifolds. We show that such surfaces are either one of a totally geodesic family described by Calvaruso and Van der Veken or the ambient manifold must be locally conformally flat (here the surface can also be totally geodesic). The proof makes use of a key technique deployed by Manzano and Soaum in their recent classification of totally umbilical surfaces in homogeneous Riemannian three-manifolds.
We prove that an isometric immersion of a simply connected Riemannian surface M in four-dimensional Minkowski space, with given normal bundle E and given mean curvature vector H \in Γ(E), is equivalent to a normalized spinor field φ\in Γ(ΣE \otimes ΣM) solution of a Dirac equation Dφ=H\cdotφon the surface. Using the immersion of the Minkowski space into the complex quaternions, we also obtain a representation of the immersion in terms of the spinor field. We then use these results to describe the flat spacelike surfaces with flat normal bundle and regular Gauss map in four-dimensional Minkowsk…
Since the first work of Thomas Friedrich showing that isometric immersions of Riemann surfaces are related to spinors and the Dirac equation, various works appeared generalizing this approach to more general Spin-manifolds, in particular the case of submanifolds of Spin-manifolds of constant curvature. In the present work we investigate the case of submanifolds of SpinC-manifolds of constant curvature.
We develop an approach to affine symplectic invariant geometry of Lagrangian surfaces by the method of moving frames. The fundamental invariants of elliptic Lagrangian immersions in affine symplectic four-space are derived together with their integrability equations. The invariant setup is applied to discuss the question of symplectic applicability for elliptic Lagrangian immersions. Explicit examples are considered.
We obtain an exhaustive classification of totally umbilical surfaces in unimodular and non-unimodular simply-connected 3-dimensional Lie groups endowed with arbitrary left-invariant Riemannian metrics. This completes the classification of totally umbilical surfaces in homogeneous Riemannian 3-manifolds.
We prove that, given a $C^2$ Riemannian metric $g$ on the $2$-dimensional disk $D_2$, any short $C^1$ immersion of $(D_2,g)$ into $\mathbb R^3$ can be uniformly approximated with $C^{1,α}$ isometric immersions for any $α< \frac{1}{5}$. This statement improves previous results by Yu.F. Borisov and of a joint paper of the first and third author with S. Conti.
In this paper, we study totally real minimal surfaces in the quaternionic projective space $\mathbb{H}P^n$. We prove that the linearly full totally real flat minimal surfaces of isotropy order $n$ in $\mathbb{H}P^n$ are two surfaces in $\mathbb{C}P^n$, one of which is the Clifford solution, up to symplectic congruence.
We study affine immersions as introduced by Nomizu and Pinkall. We classify those affine immersions of a surface in 4-space which are degenerate and have vanishing cubic form (i.e. parallel second fundamental form). This completes the classification of parallel surfaces of which the first results were obtained in the beginning of this century by Blaschke and his collaborators.
We consider conformal immersions of Riemann surfaces in $\bb{S}^4$ and study their Gauss maps with values in the Grassmann bundle $\mathcal{F} = SO_5/T^2 \to \mathbb{S}^4$. The energy of maps from Riemann surfaces into $\mathcal{F}$ is considered with respect to the normal metric on the target and immersions with harmonic Gauss maps are characterized. We also show that the normal-harmonic map equation for Gauss maps is a completely integrable system, thus giving a partial answer of a question posed by Y. Ohnita in \cite{ohnita}. Associated $\mathbb{S}^1$-families of parallel mean curvature imm…
We approach the study of totally real immersions of smooth manifolds into holomorphic Riemannian space forms of constant sectional curvature -1. We introduce a notion of first and second fundamental form, we prove that they satisfy a similar version of the classic Gauss-Codazzi equations, and conversely that solutions of Gauss-Codazzi equations are immersion data of some equivariant map. This study has some interesting geometric consequences: 1) it provides a formalism to study immersions of surfaces into SL(2,C) and into the space of geodesics of H^3; 2) it generalizes the classical theory of…
The isometric immersion of two-dimensional Riemannian manifolds or surfaces in the three-dimensional Euclidean space is a fundamental problem in differential geometry. When the Gauss curvature is negative, the isometric immersion problem is considered in this paper through the Gauss-Codazzi system for the second fundamental forms. It is shown that if the Gauss curvature satisfies an integrability condition, the surface has a global smooth isometric immersion in the three-dimensional Euclidean space even if the Gauss curvature decays very slowly at infinity. The new idea of the proof is based o…
Totally isotropic surfaces in $S^6$ are not necessarily Willmore surfaces. Therefore it is the first goal of this paper to derive a geometric characterization of totally isotropic Willmore two-spheres in $S^6$. This will naturally yield to a description of such surfaces in terms of the loop group language. Moreover, applying the loop group method, we also obtain an algorithm to construct totally isotropic Willmore two-spheres in $S^6$. As an application, a new, totally isotropic Willmore two-sphere which is not S-Willmore (i.e., has no dual surface) in $S^6$ is constructed, illustrating the th…
We will investigate the local geometry of the surfaces in the $7$-dimensional Euclidean space associated to harmonic maps from a Riemann surface $Σ$ into $S^6$. By applying methods based on the use of harmonic sequences, we will characterize the conformal harmonic immersions $φ:Σ\to S^6$ whose associated immersions $F:Σ\to \mathbb{R}^7$ belong to certain remarkable classes of surfaces, namely: minimal surfaces in hyperspheres; surfaces with parallel mean curvature vector field; pseudo-umbilical surfaces; isotropic surfaces.
