We survey what is known about minimal surfaces in $\bold R^3 $ that are complete, embedded, and have finite total curvature. The only classically known examples of such surfaces were the plane and the catenoid. The discovery by Costa, early in the last decade, of a new example that proved to be embedded sparked a great deal of research in this area. Many new examples have been found, even families of them, as will be described below. The central question has been transformed from whether or not there are any examples except surfaces of rotation to one of understanding the structure of the space of examples.
We show that a compact embedded minimal or constant mean curvature annulus with non-vanishing Gaussian curvature which is tangent to two spheres of same radius or tangent to a sphere and meeting a plane in constant contact angle is rotational.
We prove that any constant mean curvature embedded torus in the three dimensional sphere is axially symmetric, and use this to give a complete classification of such surfaces for any given value of the mean curvature.
After appropriate normalizations an embedded disk whose second fundamental form has large norm contains a multi-valued graph, provided the L^P norm of the mean curvature is sufficiently small. This generalizes to non-minimal surfaces a well known result of Colding and Minicozzi.
In this paper we prove that an embedded and simply connected constant mean curvature surface with curvature large at a point contains a multi-valued graph around that point on the scale of $|A|^2$, where $|A|^2$ is the norm squared of the second fundamental form. This generalizes Colding and Minicozzi's result for minimal surfaces.
We construct embedded triply periodic zero mean curvature surfaces of mixed type in the Lorentz-Minkowski 3-space with the same topology as the Schwarz D surface in the Euclidean 3-space.
This paper proves that classical minimal surfaces of arbitrary topological type with total boundary curvature at most 4πmust be smoothly embedded. Related results are proved for varifolds and for soap film surfaces.
We study the rigidity of complete, embedded constant mean curvature surfaces in R^3. Among other things, we prove that when such a surface has finite genus, then intrinsic isometries of the surface extend to isometries of R^3 or its isometry group contains an index two subgroup of isometries that extend.
Given a constant $k>1$ and a real valued function $K$ on the hyperbolic plane $\mathbb H^2$, we study the problem of finding, for any $ε\approx 0$, a closed and embedded curve $u^ε$ in $\mathbb H^2$ having geodesic curvature $k+εK(u^ε)$ at each point.
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 $S^{n+1}(1)$.
For any prescribed closed subset of a line segment in Euclidean 3-space, we construct a sequence of minimal disks that are properly embedded in an open solid cylinder around the segment and that have curvatures blowing up precisely at the points of the closed set.
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.
We construct a sequence of compact embedded minimal disks in a ball in Euclidean 3-space, whose boundaries lie in the boundary of the ball, such that the curvature blows up only at a prescribed discrete (and hence, finite) set of points on the x_3-axis. This extends a result of Colding and Minicozzi, who constructed a sequence for which the curvature blows up only at the center of the ball, and is a partial affirmative answer to the larger question of the existence of a sequence for which the curvature blows up precisely on a prescribed closed set on the x_3-axis.
In 1841, Delaunay constructed the embedded surfaces of revolution with constant mean curvature (CMC); these unduloids have genus zero and are now known to be the only embedded CMC surfaces with two ends and finite genus. Here, we construct the complete family of embedded CMC surfaces with three ends and genus zero; they are classified using their asymptotic necksizes. We work in a class slightly more general than embedded surfaces, namely immersed surfaces which bound an immersed three-manifold, as introduced by Alexandrov.
We study the Dirichlet problem associated to the equation for self-similar surfaces for graphs over the Euclidean plane with a disk removed. We show the existence of a solution provided the boundary conditions on the boundary circle are small enough and satisfy some symmetries. This is the second step towards the construction of new examples of complete embedded self similar surfaces under mean curvature flow.
Any sequence of properly embedded minimal disks in an open subset U of Euclidean 3-space has a subsequence such that the curvatures blow up on a relatively closed subset K of U and such that the disks converge in the complement of K to a minimal lamination of U\K. Assuming results of Colding-Minicozzi and an extension due to Meeks, we prove that such a blow-up set K must be contained in a C^1 embedded curve.
Embedded minimal surfaces of finite total curvature in $\mathbb{R}^3$ are reasonably well understood: From far away, they look like intersecting catenoids and planes, suitably desingularized. We consider the larger class of harmonic embeddings in $\mathbb{R}^{3}$ of compact Riemann surfaces with finitely many punctures where the harmonic coordinate functions are given as real parts of meromorphic functions. This paper is motivated by two outstanding features of such surfaces: They can have highly complicated ends, and they still have total Gauss curvature being a multiple of $2π$. This poses t…
In this paper we study the mean curvature flow of embedded disks with free boundary on an embedded cylinder or generalised cone of revolution, called the support hypersurface. We determine regions of the interior of the support hypersurface such that initial data is driven to a curvature singularity in finite time or exists for all time and converges to a minimal disk. We further classify the type of the singularity. We additionally present applications of these results to the uniqueness problem for minimal hypersurfaces with free boundary on such suppport hypersurfaces; the results obtained t…
We introduce the moduli space of spectral curves of constant mean curvature (\cmc\hspace{-5pt}) cylinders of finite type in the round unit 3-sphere. The subset of spectral curves of mean-convex Alexandrov embedded cylinders is explicitly determined using a combination of integrable systems and geometric analysis techniques. We prove that these cylinders are surfaces of revolution. As a consequence all mean-convex Alexandrov embedded {\sc{cmc}} tori in the 3-sphere are surfaces of revolution.
We prove a lower bound for the first Steklov eigenvalue of embedded minimal hypersurfaces with free boundary in a compact $n$-dimensional manifold which has nonnegative Ricci curvature and strictly convex boundary. When $n=3$, this implies apriori area and curvature estimates for these minimal surfaces in terms of the geometry of the ambient manifold and the topology of the minimal surface. An important consequence of the estimate is a smooth compactness result for embedded minimal surfaces with free boundary when the topological type of these minimal surfaces is fixed.
The aim of this paper is to extend classic results of the theory of CMC surfaces in the product spaces to the class of immersed surfaces in $\mathbb{M}^2(κ)\times\mathbb{R}$ whose mean curvature is given as a $C^1$ function depending on their angle function. We cover topics such as the existence of a priori curvature estimates for graphs, height estimates for horizontal and vertical compact graphs and a structure-type result, which classifies all the simply connected, properly embedded surfaces with finite topology.
Given a positive function $F$ on $S^n$ which satisfies a convexity condition, for $1\leq r\leq n$, we define the $r$-th anisotropic mean curvature function $H^F_r$ for hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ which is a generalization of the usual $r$-th mean curvature function. We prove that a compact embedded hypersurface without boundary in $\R^{n+1}$ with $H^F_r={constant}$ is the Wulff shape, up to translations and homotheties. In case $r=1$, our result is the anisotropic version of Alexandrov Theorem, which gives an affirmative answer to an open problem of F. Morgan.
We obtain compact orientable embedded surfaces with constant mean curvature $0<H<\frac{1}{2}$ and arbitrary genus in $\mathbb{S}^2\times\mathbb{R}$. These surfaces have dihedral symmetry and desingularize a pair of spheres with mean curvature $\frac{1}{2}$ tangent along an equator. This is a particular case of a conjugate Plateau construction of doubly periodic surfaces with constant mean curvature in $\mathbb{S}^2\times\mathbb{R}$, $\mathbb{H}^2\times\mathbb{R}$, and $\mathbb{R}^3$ with bounded height and enjoying the symmetries of certain tessellations of $\mathbb{S}^2$, $\mathbb{H}^2$, and …
We carry out the first main step towards the construction of new examples of complete embedded self-similar surfaces under mean curvature flow. An approximate solution is obtained by taking two known examples of self-similar surfaces and desingularizing the intersection circle using an appropriately modified singly periodic Scherk surface, called the core. Using an inverse function theorem, we show that for small boundary conditions on the core, there is an embedded surface close to the core that is a solution of the equation for self-similar surfaces. This provides us with an adequate central…
We compute the flux of Killing fields through ends of constant mean curvature 1 in hyperbolic space, and we prove a result conjectured by Rossman, Umehara and Yamada : the flux matrix they have defined is equivalent to the flux of Killing fields. We next give a geometric description of embedded ends of finite total curvature. In particular, we show that we can define an axis for these ends that are asymptotic to a catenoid cousin. We also compute the flux of Killing fields through these ends, and we deduce some geometric properties and some analogies with minimal surfaces in Euclidean space.
In this paper we give two examples of sequences of embedded minimal planar domains in $\mathbb{R}^3$ which converge to singular laminations of $\mathbb{R}^3$. In contrast with the situation for embedded minimal disks, these examples do not arise from complete embedded minimal planar domains and highlight some of the subtleties inherent in understanding refined properties of embedded minimal planar domains.
In this paper, we study $n$-dimensional hypersurfaces with constant $m^{\text{th}}$ mean curvature $H_m$ in a unit sphere $S^{n+1}(1)$ and prove that if the $m^{\text{th}}$ mean curvature $H_m$ takes value between $\dfrac{1}{(\tan \fracπ{k})^m}$ and $\frac{k^2-2}{n}(\frac{k^2+m-2}{n-m})^{\frac{m-2}{2}}$ for $1\leq m\leq n-1$ and any integer $k\geq 2$, then there exists at least one $n$-dimensional compact nontrivial embedded hypersurface with constant $H_m>0$ in $S^{n+1}(1)$. When $m=1$, our results reduce to the results of Perdomo \cite{[P]}; when $m=2$ and $m=4$, our results reduce to the re…
We classify all rotational surfaces in Euclidean space whose principal curvatures $κ_1$ and $κ_2$ satisfy the linear relation $κ_1=aκ_2+b$, where $a$ and $b$ are two constants. We give a variational characterization of these surfaces in terms of its generating curve. As a consequence of our classification, we find closed (embedded and not embedded) surfaces and periodic (embedded and not embedded) surfaces with a geometric behaviour similar to Delaunay surfaces.
given two minimal surfaces embedded in $\S3$ of genus $g$ we prove the existence of a sequence of non-congruent compact minimal surfaces embedded in $\S3$ of genus $g$ that converges in $C^{2,α}$ to a compact embedded minimal surface provided some conditions are satisfied. These conditions also imply that, if any of these two surfaces is embedded by the first eigenvalue, so is the other.
We construct three kinds of complete embedded minimal surfaces in $\Bbb H^2\times \Bbb R$. The first is a simply connected, singly periodic, infinite total curvature surface. The second is an annular finite total curvature surface. These two are conjugate surfaces just as the helicoid and the catenoid are in $\mathbb R^3$. The third one is a finite total curvature surface which is conformal to $\mathbb S^2\setminus\{p_1,...,p_k\}, k\geq3.$
We prove a chord arc bound for disks embedded in $\mathbb{R}^3$ with constant mean curvature. This bound does not depend on the value of the mean curvature. It is inspired by and generalizes the work of Colding and Minicozzi in [2] for embedded minimal disks. Like in the minimal case, this chord arc bound is a fundamental tool for studying complete constant mean curvature surfaces embedded in $\mathbb{R}^3$ with finite topology or with positive injectivity radius.
We present a new construction of embedded minimal surfaces in hyperbolic space with $3$ asymptotically totally geodesic ends and arbitrary finite genus.
We show that a totally geodesic submanifold of a symmetric space satisfying certain conditions admits an extension to a minimal submanifold of dimension one higher, and we apply this result to construct new examples of complete embedded minimal submanifolds in simply connected noncompact globally symmetric spaces.
We describe a construction of complete embedded self-translating surfaces under mean curvature flow by desingularizing the intersection of a finite family of grim reapers in general position.
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.
In this paper we prove an extrinsic one-sided curvature estimate for disks embedded in $\mathbb{R}^3$ with constant mean curvature which is independent of the value of the constant mean curvature. We apply this extrinsic one-sided curvature estimate in [24] to prove to prove a weak chord arc type result for these disks. In Section 4 we apply this weak chord arc result to obtain an intrinsic version of the one-sided curvature estimate for disks embedded in $\mathbb{R}^3$ with constant mean curvature. In a natural sense, these one-sided curvature estimates generalize respectively, the extrinsic …
In this paper we study the blow up sequence of mean curvature flow of surfaces in $\mathbb R^3$ with additional forces. We prove that the blow up limit of a mean curvature flow of smoothly embedded surfaces with additional forces with finite entropy is a smoothly embedded self-shrinker.
We show that one-sided Alexandrov embedded constant mean curvature cylinders of finite type in the 3-sphere are surfaces of revolution. This confirms a conjecture by Pinkall and Sterling that the only embedded constant mean curvature tori in the 3-sphere are rotational.
We establish a curvature estimate for classical minimal surfaces with total boundary curvature less than 4π. The main application is a bound on the genus of these surfaces depending solely on the geometry of the boundary curve. We also prove that the set of simple closed curves with total curvature less than 4πand which do not bound an orientable compact embedded minimal surface of genus greater than g, for any given g, is open in the C^{2,α} topology.
In this paper, we discuss complete minimal immersions in $\mathbb{R}^N$($N\geq4$) with finite total curvature and embedded planar ends. First, we prove nonexistence for the following cases: (1) genus 1 with 2 embedded planar ends, (2) genus $\neq4$, hyperelliptic with 2 embedded planar ends like the Lagrangian catenoid. Then we show the existence of embedded minimal spheres in $\mathbb{R}^4$ with 3 embedded planar ends. Moreover, we construct genus $g$ examples in $\mathbb{R}^4$ with $d$ embedded planar ends such that $g\geq 1$ and $g+2\leq d\leq 2g+1$. These examples include a family of embed…
Examples of complete minimal surfaces properly embedded in H^2 x R have been extensively studied and the literature contains a plethora of nontrivial ones. In this paper we construct a large class of examples of complete minimal surfaces embedded in H^2 x R, not necessarily proper, which are invariant by a vertical translation or by a hyperbolic or parabolic screw motion. In particular, we construct a large family of non-proper complete minimal disks embedded in H^2 x R invariant by a vertical translation and a hyperbolic screw motion and whose importance is twofold. They have finite total cur…
In this paper we prove two theorems. The first one is a structure result that describes the extrinsic geometry of an embedded surface with constant mean curvature (possibly zero) in a homogeneously regular Riemannian three-manifold, in any small neighborhood of a point of large almost-maximal curvature. We next apply this theorem and the Quadratic Curvature Decay Theorem (previously proven by the same authors in [14]) to deduce compactness, descriptive and dynamics-type results concerning the space $D(M)$ of non-flat limits under dilations of any given properly embedded minimal surface $M$ in …
An anisotropic surface energy is the integral of an energy density that depends on the normal at each point over the considered surface, and it is a generalization of surface area. The minimizer of such an energy among all closed surfaces enclosing the same volume is unique and it is (up to rescaling) so-called the Wulff shape. We prove that, unlike the isotropic case, there exists an anisotropic energy density function such that there exist closed embedded equilibrium surfaces with genus zero in the three-dimensional Euclidean space each of which is not (any homothety and translation of) the …
We investigate complete minimal hypersurfaces in the Euclidean space $% \ {R}^{4}$, with Gauss-Kronecker curvature identically zero. We prove that, if $f:M^{3}\to {R}^{4}$ is a complete minimal hypersurface with Gauss-Kronecker curvature identically zero, nowhere vanishing second fundamental form and scalar curvature bounded from below, then $f(M^{3})$ splits as a Euclidean product $L^{2}\times {R}$, where $L^{2}$ is a complete minimal surface in $ {R}^{3}$ with Gaussian curvature bounded from below.
We construct a complete, embedded minimal surface in euclidean 3-space which has unbounded Gaussian curvature. It has infinite genus, infinitely many catenoidal type ends and one limit end.
We present conditions on the Ricci curvature for complete, oriented, minimal submanifolds of Euclidean space, as well as the standard unit sphere, when the Gauss maps are bounded embeddings.
