Homologically versus homotopically area minimizing surfaces in 3-manifolds

We construct a Riemannian metric on the 3-torus such that no closed surface minimizing area in its homology class is incompressible, i.e., each such surface is of genus greater than one. In particular, for such a Riemannian metric, the homotopically area minimizing 2-tori constructed in [5] do not minimize area in their homology classes. The example is easily generalized to arbitrary 3-manifolds. The constructed Riemannian metric can be chosen to be conformally equivalent to any arbitrary given one. Received September 4, 1998 / Accepted October 23, 1998     

A method to exclude branch points of minimal surfaces

The central problem of this paper is to exclude boundary branch points of minimal surfaces. The method consists in showing that the third derivative of the Dirichlet energy is negative along well-chosen paths in admissible Jacobi field directions, if a “Schüffler condition” is satisfied. Received July 21, 1997 / Accepted October 3, 1997     

Flat surfaces in the hyperbolic 3-space

In this paper we give a conformal representation of flat surfaces in the hyperbolic 3-space using the complex structure induced by its second fundamental form. We also study some examples and the behaviour at infinity of complete flat ends. Received: 18 September 1997     

The Dirichlet problem at infinity for harmonic map equations arising from constant mean curvature surfaces in the hyperbolic 3-space

The purpose of this paper is to study some uniqueness, existence and regularity properties of the Dirichlet problem at infinity for proper harmonic maps from the hyperbolic m-space to the open unit n-ball with a specific incomplete metric. When m=n=2, harmonic solutions of this Dirichlet problem yield complete constant mean curvature surfaces in the hyperbolic 3-space. Received: 25 January 2001 / Accepted: 23 February 2001 / Published online: 25 June 2001     

Minimal surfaces in R3 with one end¶and bounded curvature

We study complete minimal surfaces M immersed in R ³, with finite topology and one end. We give conditions which oblige M to be conformally a compact Riemann surface punctured in one point, and we show that M can be parametrized by meromorphic data on this compact Riemann surface. The goal is to prove that when M is also embedded, then the end of M is asymptotic to an end of a helicoid (or M is a plane). Received: 13 January 1997 / Revised version: 15 September 1997     

Uniqueness of harmonic maps with small energy

Harmonic maps from B ₁ (0, ℝ³) to a smooth compact target manifold N with uniformly small scaled energy (see assumption (2) below) are shown to be unique for their boundary values. Received: 12 May 1997     

Uniform partial regularity of quasi minimizers for the perimeter

Quasi minimizers for the perimeter are measurable subsets G of such that for all variations of G with and for a given increasing function such that . We prove here that, given , G a reduced quasi minimizer, and , there are , with , and , homeomorphic to a closed ball with radius t in , such that for some absolute constant . The constant above depends only on n, and . If moreover for some , we prove that we can find such a ball such that is a dimensional graph of class . This will be obtained proving that a quasi minimizer is equivalent to some set which satisfies the condition B. This condition gives some kind of uniform control on the flatness of the boundary and then criterions proven by Ambrosio-Paolini and Tamanini can be applied to get the required regularity properties. Received: July 12, 1999 / Accepted: October 1, 1999     

Ruled Weingarten surfaces in Minkowski 3-space

We characterize all ruled surfaces in Minkowski 3-space with a relation between the Gauss and mean curvature (Weingarten surfaces). It turns out that, except if the rulings are in a null direction, these are given by Lorentzian screw motions of straight lines. However, if the rulings are always in a null direction, then every ruled surface is Weingarten. Received: 9 February 1998 / Revised version: 20 December 1998     

Starshaped hypersurfaces¶and the mean curvature flow

Under the assumption of two a-priori bounds for the mean curvature, we are able to generalize a recent result due to Huisken and Sinestrari [8], valid for mean convex surfaces, to a much larger class. In particular we will demonstrate that these a-priori bounds are satisfied for a class of surfaces including meanconvex as well as starshaped surfaces and a variety of manifolds that are close to them. This gives a classification of the possible singularities for these surfaces in the case n= 2. In addition we prove that under certain initial conditions some of them become mean convex before the first singularity occurs. Received: 6 June 1997 / Revised version: 24 October 1997     

Towards the Willmore conjecture

We develop a variety of approaches, mainly using integral geometry, to proving that the integral of the square of the mean curvature of a torus immersed in must always take a value no less than . Our partial results, phrased mainly within the -formulation of the problem, are typically strongest when the Gauss curvature can be controlled in terms of extrinsic curvatures or when the torus enjoys further properties related to its distribution within the ambient space (see Sect. 3). Corollaries include a recent result of Ros [20] confirming the Willmore conjecture for surfaces invariant under the antipodal map, and a strengthening of the expected results for flat tori. The value arises in this work in a number of different ways – as the volume (or renormalised volume) of or , and in terms of the length of shortest nontrivial loops in subgroups of SO(4). Received April 26, 1999 / Accepted January 14, 2000 / Published online June 28, 2000     

On the existence of nontrivial extremal metrics on complete noncompact surfaces

In this paper, we consider the 2-dimensional local Calabi flow on a complete noncompact surface . Then, based on the Harnack-type estimate, we show the long-time existence and asymptotic convergence of a subsequence of solutions of such a flow on with and bounded from above by a negative constant on a ball. For its applications, this will lead to the existence of extremal metrics on a complete noncompact surface of finite topological type. In particular, there exists an extremal metric of nonconstant Gaussian curvature on or Received: 21 June 2001 / 18 January 2002 / Published online: 27 June 2002 Research supported in part by NSC and NCTS.     

A characterization of graphs which can be approximated in area by smooth graphs

For vector valued maps, convergence in W ^1,1 and of all minors of the Jacobian matrix in L ¹ is equivalent to convergence weakly in the sense of currents and in area for graphs. We show that maps defined on domains of dimension n≥ 3 can be approximated strongly in this sense by smooth maps if and only if the same property holds for the restriction to a.e. 2-dimensional plane intersecting the domain. Received April 29, 1999 / final version received July 21, 2000?Published online September 25, 2000     

The calibration method for the Mumford-Shah functional and free-discontinuity problems

We present a minimality criterion for the Mumford-Shah functional, and more generally for non convex variational integrals on SBV which couple a surface and a bulk term. This method provides short and easy proofs for several minimality results. Received: 29 November 2001 / Published online: 29 April 2002     

On the free boundary of surfaces with bounded mean curvature: the non-perpendicular case

H?lder continuity up to the free boundary is proved for minimizing solutions if they meet the supporting surface in an angle which is bounded away from zero. The problem is localized by proving the continuity of the distance function, a result which is also true for stationary points. Received: 14 April 1998     

A polynomial of graphs on surfaces

ribbon graphs , i.e., graphs realized as disks (vertices) joined together by strips (edges) glued to their boundaries, corresponding to neighbourhoods of graphs embedded into surfaces. We construct a four-variable polynomial invariant of these objects, the ribbon graph polynomial, which has all the main properties of the Tutte polynomial. Although the ribbon graph polynomial extends the Tutte polynomial, its definition is very different, and it depends on the topological structure in an essential way. Received: 14 September 2000 / Published online: 18 January 2002