The Willmore conjecture states that any immersion F:T^2 -> R^n of a 2-torus into flat euclidean space satisfies $\int_{T^2} H^2\geq 2π^2$. We prove it under the condition that the L^p-norm of the Gaussian curvature is sufficiently small.
We show that the homogeneous and the 2-lobe Delaunay tori in the 3-sphere provide the only isothermic constrained Willmore tori in 3-space with Willmore energy below $8π$. In particular, every constrained Willmore torus with Willmore energy below $8π$ and non-rectangular conformal class is non-degenerated.
The tori $T_r = r S^1 \times s S^1 \subset S^3$, where $r^2 + s^2 = 1$, are constrained Willmore surfaces, i.e. critical points of the Willmore functional among tori of the same conformal type. We compute which of the $T_r$ are stable critical points.
We characterize Willmore tori in the 4-sphere with nontrivial normal bundle as Twistor projections of elliptic curves in complex projective space or as inverted minimal tori (with planar ends) in Euclidean 4-space.
In this paper we study equivariant constrained Willmore tori in the 3-sphere. These tori admit a 1-parameter group of Möbius symmetries and are critical points of the Willmore energy under conformal variations. We show that the associated spectral curve of an equivariant torus is given by a double covering of $\mathbb C$ and classify equivariant constrained Willmore tori by the genus g of their spectral curve. In this case the spectral genus satisfies $g \leq 3.$
Constrained Willmore surfaces are critical points of the Willmore functional under conformal variations. As shown in [5] one can associate to any conformally immersed constrained Willmore torus f a compact Riemann surface Σ, such that f can be reconstructed in terms of algebraic data on Σ. Particularly interesting examples of constrained Willmore tori are the tori with constant mean curvature (CMC) in a 3-dimensional space form. It is shown in [14] and in [16] that the spectral curves of these tori are hyperelliptic. In this paper we show under mild conditions that a constrained Willmore torus…
We study ends of an oriented, immersed, non-compact, complete Willmore surfaces, which are critical points of the integral of the square of the mean curvature, in asymptotically flat spaces of any dimension; assuming the surface has $L^2$-bounded second fundamental form and satisfies a weak power growth on the area. We give the precise asymptotic behavior of an end of such a surface. This asymptotic information is very much dependent on the way the ambient metric decays to the Euclidean one. Our results apply in particular to minimal surfaces.
In 1965 Willmore conjectured that the integral of the square of the mean curvature of a torus immersed in $R^3$ is at least $2π^2$ and attains this minimal value if and only if the torus is a Möbius transform of the Clifford torus. This was recently proved by Marques and Neves. In this paper, we show for tori there is a gap to the next critical point of the Willmore energy and we discuss an application to the Willmore flow. We also prove an energy gap from the Clifford torus to surfaces of higher genus.
In this paper we consider two special classes of constrained Willmore tori in the 3-sphere. The first class is given by the rotation of closed elastic curves in the upper half plane - viewed as the hyperbolic plane - around the x-axis. The second is given as the preimage of closed constrained elastic curves, i.e., elastic curve with enclosed area constraint, in the round 2-sphere under the Hopf fibration. We show that all conformal types can be isometrically immersed into S^3 as constrained Willmore (Hopf) tori and write down all constrained elastic curves in H^2 and S^2 in terms of the Weiers…
We prove that a constrained Willmore immersion of a 2-torus into the conformal 4-sphere is either of "finite type", that is, has a spectral curve of finite genus, or is of "holomorphic type" which means that it is super conformal or Euclidean minimal with planar ends. This implies that all constrained Willmore tori in the 4-sphere can be constructed rather explicitly by methods of complex algebraic geometry. The proof uses quaternionic holomorphic geometry in combination with integrable systems methods similar to those of Hitchin's approach to the study of harmonic tori in the 3-sphere.
We discuss the minimum of Willmore functional of torus in a Riemannian manifold $N$, especially for the case that $N$ is a product manifold. We show that when $N=S^2\times S^1$, the minimum of $W(T^2)$ is 0, and when $N=R^2\times S^1$, there exists no torus having least Willmore functional. When $N=H^2(-c)\times S^1$, and $x=γ\times S^1$, the minimum of $W(x)$ is $2π^2\sqrt{c}$.
We show that the well-known family of $2$-lobed Delaunay tori $\;f^b\;$ in $\;S^3,\;$ parametrized by $\;b \in \mathbb R_{\geq1},\;$ uniquely minimizes the Willmore energy among all immersions from tori into $3$-space of conformal class $\;(a, b)\;$. As a corollary we obtain an alternate proof of the Willmore conjecture in $3$-space. This new strategy can be generalized to arbitrary codimensions provided a classification of isothermic constrained Willmore tori is possible and all $\;f^b\;$ remain stable in all codimensions.
We prove that the critical points of various energies such as the area, the Willmore energy, the frame energy for tori...etc among possibly branched immersions constrained to evolve within a smooth sub-manifold of the Teichmüller space satisfy the corresponding constrained Euler Lagrange equation. We deduce that critical points of the Willmore energy or the frame energy for tori are smooth analytic surfaces, away possibly from isolated branched points, under the condition that either the genus is at most 2 or if the sub-manifold does not intersect the subspace of hyper-elliptic points. Using a…
A new approach is proposed for study structure and properties of the total squared mean curvature $W$ of surfaces in ${\bf R}^3$. It is based on the generalized Weierstrass formulae for inducing surfaces. The quantity $W$ (Willmore functional) is shown to be invariant under the modified Novikov--Veselov hierarchy of integrable flows. The $1+1$--dimensional case and, in particular, Willmore tori of revolution, are studied in details. The Willmore conjecture is proved for the mKDV--invariant Willmore tori.
We study immersed tori in $3$-space minimizing the Willmore energy in their respective conformal class. Within the rectangular conformal classes $\;(0,b)\;$ with $\;b \sim 1\;$ the homogenous tori $\;f^b\;$ are known to be the unique constrained Willmore minimizers (up to invariance). In this paper we generalize this result and show that the candidates constructed in \cite{HelNdi2} are indeed constrained Willmore minimizers in certain non-rectangular conformal classes $\;(a,b).\;$ Difficulties arise from the fact that these minimizers are non-degenerate for $\;a \neq 0\;$ but smoothly converge…
Ejiri's torus in $S^5$ is the first example of Willmore surface which is not conformally equivalent to any minimal surface in any space forms. Li and Vrancken classified all Willmore surfaces of tensor product in $S^{n}$ by reducing them into elastic curves in $S^3$, and the Ejiri torus appeared as a special example. In this paper, we first prove that among all Willmore tori of tensor product, the Willmore functional of the Ejiri torus in $S^5$ attains the minimum $2π^2\sqrt{3}$. Then we show that all Willmore tori of tensor product are unstable when the co-dimension is big enough. We also sho…
A Euclidean minimal torus with planar ends gives rise to an immersed Willmore torus in the conformal 3--sphere $S^3=\R^3\cup \{\infty\}$. The class of Willmore tori obtained this way is given a spectral theoretic characterization as the class of Willmore tori with reducible spectral curve. A spectral curve of this type is necessarily the double of the spectral curve of an elliptic KP soliton. The simplest possible examples of minimal tori with planar ends are related to 1--gap Lamé potentials, the simplest non--trivial algebro geometric KdV potentials. If one allows for translational periods, …
Let $x:M\to S^{n+p}$ be an $n$-dimensional submanifold in an $(n+p)$-dimensional unit sphere $S^{n+p}$, $x:M\to S^{n+p}$ is called a Willmore submanifold to the following Willmore functional: $$ \int_M(S-nH^2)^{\frac{n}{2}}dv, $$ where $S=\sum\limits_{α,i,j}(h^α_{ij})^2$ is the square of the length of the second fundamental form, $H$ is the mean curvature of $M$. In [13], author proved an integral inequality of Simon's type for $n$-dimensional compact Willmore hypersurfaces in $S^{n+1}$ and gave a characterization of {\it Willmore tori}. In this paper, we generalize this result to $n$-dimensio…
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 …
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 show that Lawson's bipolar surface $\tildeτ_{3,1}$ is after stereographic projection the unique minimizer among immersed Klein bottles in its conformal class. We conjecture that it actually is the unique minimizer among immersed Klein bottles into $\mathbb{R}^n$, $n\geq 4$, whose existence the authors and P. Breuning proved in a previous paper.
A family of embedded rotationally symmetric tori in the Euclidean 3-space consisting of two opposite signed constant mean curvature surfaces that converge as varifolds to a double round sphere is constructed. Using complete elliptic integrals, it is shown that their Willmore energy lies strictly below $8π$. Combining such a strict inequality with previous works by Keller-Mondino-Rivière and Mondino-Scharrer allows to conclude that for every isoperimetric ratio there exists a smoothly embedded torus minimising the Willmore functional under isoperimetric constraint, thus completing the solution …
In this paper we develop the theory of Willmore sequences for Willmore surfaces in the 4-sphere. We show that under appropriate conditions this sequence has to terminate. In this case the Willmore surface either is the twistor projection of a holomorphic curve into complex projective space or the inversion of a minimal surface with planar ends in 4-space. These results give a unified explanation of previous work on the characterization of Willmore spheres and Willmore tori with non-trivial normal bundles by various authors.
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.
This is the second of a series of two papers where we construct embedded Willmore tori with small area constraint in Riemannian three-manifolds. In both papers the construction relies on a Lyapunov-Schmidt reduction, the difficulty being the Möbius degeneration of the tori. In the first paper the construction was performed via minimization, here by Morse Theory; to this aim we establish new geometric expansions of the derivative of the Willmore functional on exponentiated small Clifford tori degenerating, under the action of the Möbius group, to small geodesic spheres with a small handle. By u…
Spacelike Willmore surfaces in 4-dimensional Lorentzian space forms, a topic in Lorentzian conformal geometry which parallels the theory of Willmore surfaces in $S^4$, are studied in this paper. We define two kinds of transforms for such a surface, which produce the so-called left/right polar surfaces and the adjoint surfaces. These new surfaces are again conformal Willmore surfaces. For them holds interesting duality theorem. As an application spacelike Willmore 2-spheres are classified. Finally we construct a family of homogeneous spacelike Willmore tori.
In this paper we build an explicit example of a minimal bubble on a Willmore surface, showing there cannot be compactness for Willmore immersions of Willmore energy above $16 π$. Additionnally we prove an inequality on the second residue for limits sequences of Willmore immersions with simple minimal bubbles. Doing so, we exclude some gluing configurations and prove compactness for immersed Willmore tori of energy below $12 π$.
We construct embedded Willmore tori with small area constraint in Riemannian three-manifolds under some curvature condition used to prevent Möbius degeneration. The construction relies on a Lyapunov-Schmidt reduction; to this aim we establish new geometric expansions of exponentiated small symmetric Clifford tori and analyze the sharp asymptotic behavior of degenerating tori under the action of the Möbius group. In this first work we prove two existence results by minimizing or maximizing a suitable reduced functional, in particular we obtain embedded area-constrained Willmore tori (or, equiva…
We show that any minimal torus in $S^3$ which is Alexandrov immersed must be rotationally symmetric. An analogous result holds for surfaces of constant mean curvature.
In this paper we study the local regularity of closed surfaces immersed in a Riemannian 3-manifold flowing by Willmore flow. We establish a pair of concentration-compactness alternatives for the flow, giving a lower bound on the maximal time of existence of the flow proportional to the concentration of the curvature and area at initial time. The estimate from the first theorem is purely in terms of the concentration of curvature at initial time but applies only to ambient spaces with non-positive sectional curvature. The second requires additional information on the concentration of area at in…
We show that the extrinsic diameter of immersed flat tori in the 3-sphere is $π$ under a certain topological condition for the projection of their asymptotic curves with respect to the Hopf fibration.
Let $K$ be a Klein bottle. We show that the infimum of the Willmore energy among all immersed Klein bottles in Euclidean $n$-space is attained by a smooth embedded Klein bottle, where $n\geq 4$. There are three distinct regular homotopy classes of immersed Klein bottles in the Euclidean four-space each one containing an embedding. One is characterized by the property that it contains the minimizer just mentioned. For the other two regular homotopy classes we show that the Willmore energy is bounded from below by $8π$. We give a classification of the minimizers of these two classes. In particul…
We discuss several kinds of Willmore surfaces of flat normal bundle in this paper. First we show that every S-Willmore surface with flat normal bundle in $S^n$ must locate in some $S^3\subset S^n$, from which we characterize Clifford torus as the only non-equatorial homogeneous minimal surface in $S^n$ with flat normal bundle, which improve a result of K. Yang. Then we derived that every Willmore two sphere with flat normal bundle in $S^n$ is conformal to a minimal surface with embedded planer ends in $\mathbb{R}^3$. We also point out that for a class of Willmore tori, they have flat normal bu…
We develop a general method to compute the Morse index of branched Willmore spheres and show that the Morse index is equal to the index of certain matrix whose dimension is equal to the number of ends of the dual minimal surface. As a corollary, we find that for all immersed Willmore spheres $\vecΦ:S^2\rightarrow \mathbb{R}^3$ such that $W(\vecΦ)=4πn$, we have $\mathrm{Ind}_{W}(\vecΦ)\leq n-1$
In 1965, T. J. Willmore conjectured that the integral of the square of the mean curvature of a torus immersed in Euclidean three-space is at least 2π^2. We prove this conjecture using the min-max theory of minimal surfaces.
We show that all superconformal harmonic immersions from genus one surfaces into de Sitter spaces $ S ^ {2n}_1 $ with globally defined harmonic sequence are of finite-type and hence result merely from solving a pair of ordinary differential equations. As an application, we prove that all Willmore tori in $ S ^ 3 $ without umbilic points can be constructed in this simple way.
The normal map given by Birkhoff orthogonality yields extensions of principal, Gaussian and mean curvatures to surfaces immersed in three-dimensional spaces whose geometry is given by an arbitrary norm and which are also called Minkowski spaces. We obtain characterizations of the Minkowski Gaussian curvature in terms of surface areas, and respective generalizations of the classical theorems of Huber, Willmore, Alexandrov, and Bertrand-Diguet-Puiseux are derived. A generalization of Weyl's formula for the volume of tubes and some estimates for volumes and areas in terms of curvature are obtaine…
The paper is devoted to study the Dirichelet energy of moving frames on 2-dimensional tori immersed in the euclidean $3\leq m$-dimensional space. This functional, called Frame energy, is naturally linked to the Willmore energy of the immersion and on the conformal structure of the abstract underlying surface. As first result, a Willmore-conjecture type lower bound is established : namely for every torus immersed in $\R^m$, $m\geq 3$, and any moving frame on it, the frame energy is at least $2π^2$ and equalty holds if and only if $m\geq 4$, the immersion is the standard Clifford torus (up to ro…
We study surface energies depending on the mean curvature in total spaces of Killing submersions, which extend the classical notion of Willmore energy. Based on a symmetry reduction procedure, we construct vertical tori critical for these mean curvature energies. These vertical tori are based on closed curves critical for curvature energy functionals in Riemannian 2-space forms. The binormal evolution of these critical curves in Riemannian 3-space forms generates rotational tori solutions for an ample family of Weingarten surfaces. Therefore, we also introduce some correspondence results betwe…
We consider a closed Willmore surface properly immersed in ${\R}^m$ (m>2) with square-integrable second fundamental form, and with one point-singularity of finite arbitrary integer order. Using the "conservative" reformulation of the Willmore equation introduced in a previous paper by the second author, we show that, in an appropriate conformal parametrization, the gradient of the Gauss map of the immersion has bounded mean oscillations if the singularity has order one, and is bounded if the order is at least two. We develop around the singular point local asymptotic expansions for the immersi…
Functionals involving surface curvature are important across a range of scientific disciplines, and their extrema are representative of physically meaningful objects such as atomic lattices and biomembranes. Inspired in particular by the relationship of the Willmore energy to lipid bilayers, we consider a general functional depending on a surface and a symmetric combination of its principal curvatures, provided the surface is immersed in a 3-D space form. We compute the first and second variations of this functional, leading to expressions given entirely in terms of the surface fundamental for…
A conformally invariant generalization of the Willmore energy for compact immersed submanifolds of even dimension in a Riemannian manifold is derived and studied. The energy arises as the coefficient of the log term in the renormalized area expansion of a minimal submanifold in a Poincare-Einstein space with prescribed boundary at infinity. Its first variation is identified as the obstruction to smoothness of the minimal submanifold. The energy is explicitly identified for the case of submanifolds of dimension four. Variational properties of this four-dimensional energy are studied in detail w…
We consider conformal immersions $f: T^2\rightarrow \mathbb{R}^3$ with the property that $H^2 f^*g_{\mathbb{R}^3}$ is a flat metric. These so called Dirac tori have the property that its Willmore energy is uniformly distributed over the surface and can be obtained using spin transformations of the plane by eigenvectors of the standard Dirac operator for a fixed eigenvalue. We classify Dirac tori and determine the conformal classes realized by them. We want to note that the spinors of Dirac tori satisfies the same system of PDE's as the differential of Hamiltonian stationary Lagrangian tori in …
In this paper we study Moebius applicable surfaces, i.e., conformally immersed surfaces in Moebius 3-space which admit deformations preserving the Moebius metric. We show new characterizations of Willmore surfaces, Bonnet surfaces and Harmonic inverse mean curvature surfaces in terms of Moebius or similarity invariants.
We prove that every smoothly immersed 2-torus of $\mathbb{R}^4$ can be approximated, in the C0-sense, by immersed polyhedral Lagrangian tori. In the case of a smoothly immersed (resp. embedded) Lagrangian torus of $\mathbb{R}^4$, the surface can be approximated in the C1-sense by immersed (resp. embedded) polyhedral Lagrangian tori. Similar statements are proved for isotropic 2-tori of $\mathbb{R}^{2n}$.