The bridge principle for stable minimal surfaces

The author was partially funded by NSF grants DMS85-53231(PYI), DMS-92-07704, and by the IHES.     

On the thread problem for minimal surfaces

For a given one-dimensional fixed boundary $\Gamma$ in and a given constant we consider any one-dimensional free boundary $F$ in subject to the conditions that the length of is equal to , that and form a closed boundary, and that the minimal surface of dimension two being bounded by and minimizes the area among all comparison surfaces being bounded by and some with length equal to . This variational problem is known as the thread problem for minimal surfaces and stems from soap film experiments, in which the fixed boundary parts are pieces of wires and the free boundary parts are threads. The new result of this article will be that has no singular points in , provided the admissible surfaces and boundary parts are supposed to be rectifiable flat chains modulo two. Received February 16, 1995 / Accepted October 20, 1995     

On the approximation of unstable parametric minimal surfaces

We prove optimal convergence results for discrete approximations to (possibly unstable) minimal surfaces. This appears to be the first class of results of this type for geometric objects solving a highly non-linear geometric variational problem. We introduce a number of new techniques which we expect will be of use in other geometric problems. The theoretical approximation results are confirmed by numerical test computations.     

Schwarz operators of minimal surfaces spanning polygonal boundary curves

This paper examines the Schwarz operator A and its relatives Ȧ, Ā and Ǡ that are assigned to a minimal surface X which maps consequtive arcs of the boundary of its parameter domain onto the straight lines which are determined by pairs P _j , P _j+1 of two adjacent vertices of some simple closed polygon . In this case X possesses singularities in those boundary points which are mapped onto the vertices of the polygon Γ. Nevertheless it is shown that A and its closure Ā have essentially the same properties as the Schwarz operator assigned to a minimal surface which spans a smooth boundary contour. This result is used by the author to prove in [Jakob, Finiteness of the set of solutions of Plateau’s problem for polygonal boundary curves. I.H.P. Analyse Non-lineaire (in press)] the finiteness of the number of immersed stable minimal surfaces which span an extreme simple closed polygon Γ, and in [Jakob, Local boundedness of the set of solutions of Plateau’s problem for polygonal boundary curves (in press)] even the local boundedness of this number under sufficiently small perturbations of Γ.     

Integral Menger curvature for surfaces

We develop the concept of integral Menger curvature for a large class of nonsmooth surfaces. We prove uniform Ahlfors regularity and a C1,λ-a priori bound for surfaces for which this functional is finite. In fact, it turns out that there is an explicit length scale R>0 which depends only on an upper bound E for the integral Menger curvature Mp(Σ) and the integrability exponent p, and not on the surface Σ itself; below that scale, each surface with energy smaller than E looks like a nearly flat disc with the amount of bending controlled by the (local) Mp-energy. Moreover, integral Menger curvature can be defined a priori for surfaces with self-intersections or branch points; we prove that a posteriori all such singularities are excluded for surfaces with finite integral Menger curvature. By means of slicing and iterative arguments we bootstrap the Hölder exponent λ up to the optimal one, λ=1−(8/p), thus establishing a new geometric ‘Morrey–Sobolev’ imbedding theorem.As two of the various possible variational applications we prove the existence of surfaces in given isotopy classes minimizing integral Menger curvature with a uniform bound on area, and of area minimizing surfaces subjected to a uniform bound on integral Menger curvature.     

Embedded minimal annuli solving an exterior problem

Given a compact, strictly convex body in ³ and a closed Jordan curve ³ satisfying several additional assumptions, the existence of a parametric, annulus type minimal surface is proved, which parametrizes along one boundary component, has a free boundary onX along the other boundary component, and which stays in ³. As a consequence of this and a reasoning developed by W. H. Meeks and S. -T. Yau we find an embedded minimal surface with these properties. Another application is the existence of an embedded minimal surface with a flat end, free boundary onX and controlled topology.This article was processed by the author using the LATEX style filepljourlm from Springer-Verlag.     

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     

Splitting and pinching for convex sets

We consider noncompact, closed and convex sets with nonvoid interior in Euclidean space. It is shown that if such a set has one curvature measure sufficiently close to the boundary measure, then it is congruent to a product of a vector space and a compact convex body. Related stability and characterization theorems for orthogonal disc cylinders are proved. Our arguments are based on the Steiner-Schwarz symmetrization processes and generalized Minkowski integral formulas.     

Stability for hypersurfaces of constant mean curvature with free boundary

The partitioning problem for a smooth convex bodyB ³ consists in to study, among surfaces which divideB in two pieces of prescribed volume, those which are critical points of the area functional.We study stable solutions of the above problem: we obtain several topological and geometrical restrictions for this kind of surfaces. In the case thatB is a Euclidean ball we obtain stronger results.Antonio Ros is partially supported by DGICYT grant PB91-0731 and Enaldo Vergasta is partially supported by CNPq grant 202326/91-8.     

Finite element approximations to surfaces of prescribed variable mean curvature

We give an algorithm for finding finite element approximations to surfaces of prescribed variable mean curvature, which span a given boundary curve. We work in the parametric setting and prove optimal estimates in the H¹ norm. The estimates are verified computationally.     

Boundary regularity for minimizing currents with prescribed mean curvature

We prove complete boundary regularity for energy minimizing integer multiplicity rectifiablen currents in ⁿ⁺¹ of prescribed mean curvatureH with boundaryB= represented by an oriented smooth submanifold of dimensionn – 1 in sun+1. We also give applications to the Plateau problem for surfaces with prescribed mean curvature.This article was processed by the author using the LaT_EX style filepljour1 from Springer-Verlag.     

Area-stationary surfaces inside the sub-Riemannian three-sphere

We consider the sub-Riemannian metric g _h on given by the restriction of the Riemannian metric of curvature 1 to the plane distribution orthogonal to the Hopf vector field. We compute the geodesics associated to the Carnot–Carathéodory distance and we show that, depending on their curvature, they are closed or dense subsets of a Clifford torus. We study area-stationary surfaces with or without a volume constraint in (). By following the ideas and techniques by Ritoré and Rosales (Area-stationary surfaces in the Heisenberg group , arXiv:math.DG/0512547) we introduce a variational notion of mean curvature, characterize stationary surfaces, and prove classification results for complete volume-preserving area-stationary surfaces with non-empty singular set. We also use the behaviour of the Carnot–Carathéodory geodesics and the ruling property of constant mean curvature surfaces to show that the only C ² compact, connected, embedded surfaces in () with empty singular set and constant mean curvature H such that is an irrational number, are Clifford tori. Finally we describe which are the complete rotationally invariant surfaces with constant mean curvature in (). A. Hurtado has been partially supported by MCyT-Feder research project MTM2004-06015-C02-01. C. Rosales has been supported by MCyT-Feder research project MTM2004-01387.     

Centroaffine minimal hypersurfaces in ℝ n+1

In this paper the first and the second variation formulas for the area integral of the centroaffine metric of hypersurfaces in ⁿ⁺¹ are calculated, and some interesting examples of stable and unstable centroaffine minimal hypersurfaces are given.Partially supported by the DFG-project Affine Differential Geometry at the TU Berlin.     

Local and global existence criteria for capillary surfaces in wedges

This paper addresses a conjecture of Concus and Finn [Capillary Wedges Revisited, SIAM J. Math. Anal., in press] on conditions for local existence of solutions of the zero-gravity capillarity equation at a boundary protruding corner pointP of prescribed opening 2. Geometrically, surfaces of constant mean curvatureH are sought as graphs which meet vertical walls over the boundary in prescribed angles, which are locally constant except for a possible jump discontinuity atP. The conjecture is settled more or less completely in the affirmative, depending on whetherH is to be prescribed. The proof proceeds through a global existence theorem for moon domains, which seems of independent interest.     

Variational method based on finite dimensional approximation in a generalized prescribed mean curvature problem

An elementary existence proof based on variational and finite dimensional approximation methods is proposed for nontrivial solutions of the generalized prescribed mean curvature boundary value problem

     

The Cauchy problem for the Liouville equation and Bryant surfaces

We give a construction that connects the Cauchy problem for the 2-dimensional elliptic Liouville equation with a certain initial value problem for mean curvature one surfaces in hyperbolic 3-space H³, and solve both of them. We construct the unique mean curvature one surface in H³ that passes through a given curve with a given unit normal along it, and provide diverse applications. In particular, topics such as period problems, symmetries, finite total curvature, planar geodesics, rigidity, etc. are treated for these surfaces.     

The Euler and Weierstrass conditions for nonsmooth variational problems

Necessary conditions are developed for a general problem in the calculus of variations in which the Lagrangian function, although finite, need not be Lipschitz continuous or convex in the velocity argument. For the first time in such a broadly nonsmooth, nonconvex setting, a full subgradient version of Euler's equation is derived for an arc that furnishes a local minimum in the classical weak sense, and the Weierstrass inequality is shown to accompany it when the arc gives a local minimum in the strong sense. The results are achieved through new techniques in nonsmooth analysis.This research was supported in part by funds from the U.S.-Israel Science Foundation under grant 90-00455, and also by the Fund for the Promotion of Research at the Technion under grant 100-954 and by the U.S. National Science Foundation under grant DMS-9200303.This article was processed by the author using the style filepljourlm from Springer-Verlag.     

Absolute gradient bounds for nonparametric hypersurfaces of constant mean curvature

We consider the problem of determining the existence of absolute apriori gradient bounds of nonparametric hypersurfaces of constant mean curvature in ann-dimensional sphereB _R, 1>R>R ₀ ⁽ⁿ⁾ , (R ₀ ⁽ⁿ⁾ being a constant depending only onn), without imposing boundary conditions or bounds of any sort.

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Sunto Consideriamo il problema di determinare stime a priori di gradienti di ipersuperfici non parametriche di curvatura media costante in una sferan-dimensionaleB _R, 1>R>R ₀ ⁽ⁿ⁾, (R ₀ ⁽ⁿ⁾ essendo una costante che dipende solo dan), senza imporre condizioni al contorno o limiti di altro tipo.