Conformal Willmore tori in \(\mathbb{R}^4\) (Q1668316): Difference between revisions

The famous Willmore conjecture states that the minimal Willmore energy among all immersions of the two-dimensional torus \(T^2\) into \(\mathbb{R}^3\) equals \(2\pi^2\). Following its proof in [\textit{F. C. Marques} and \textit{A. Neves}, Ann. Math. (2) 179, No. 2, 683--782 (2014; Zbl 1297.49079)], numerous papers provide results of similar flavor and this article counts among them. The authors consider immersions of \(T^2\) into \(\mathbb{R}^4\). For every conformal class of two-tori and for every integer \(k \geq 3\) there exist conformal immersions with exactly one point of density \(k\) and of Willmore energy \(4k\pi\). They also show the corresponding non-existence result for \(k = 2\). In contrast to [\textit{R. L. Bryant}, J. Differ. Geom. 17, 455--473 (1982; Zbl 0498.53046)], the authors provide existence of infinitely many immersions on every torus, all of which are different from Bryant's. All branched conformal immersions from one conformal class of two-tori into \(\mathbb{R}^4\) with at least one branch point and Willmore energy \(8\pi\) are shown to be Möbius equivalent to a branched double cover into \(S^2 \times \{0\}\). Another central result states that the infimal Willmore energy over all conformal immersions into \(\mathbb{R}^4\) is less than or equal to \(8\pi\). The proof uses a perturbation argument which fails in codimension one. A byproduct yields a slight improvement of existence results for smooth, conformally constrained Willmore minimizers immersed into \(\mathbb{R}^3\).