Properly embedded minimal planar domains (Q2255290): Difference between revisions

It follows from the minimal surface equation that the plane, the catenoid and the helicoid are examples of properly embedded, minimal planar domains in \({\mathbb R}^3\). And it is well known that those surfaces are of finite topology. A planar domain is a connected surface that embeds in the plane. Around 1860, Riemann discovered examples of properly embedded, minimal planar domains in \({\mathbb R}^3\) with infinite topology. These examples, called the Riemann minimal examples by the authors, appear in a one-parameter family \({\mathcal R}_t, t \in (0, \infty)\), and satisfy the property that, after a rotation, each \({\mathcal R}_t\) intersects every horizontal plane in a circle or in a line. Moreover the \({\mathcal R}_t\) have natural limits being a vertical catenoid as \(t \to 0\) and a vertical helicoid as \(t \to \infty\). In this paper, the authors analyze the Riemann minimal examples and prove that the only connected properly embedded, minimal planar domains in \({\mathbb R}^3\) with infinite topology are the Riemann minimal examples. From this result together with previously well-known facts, the authors complete the classification of properly embedded, minimal planar domains in \({\mathbb R}^3\). Namely, they show that, up to scaling and rigid motion, any connected, properly embedded, minimal planar domain in \({\mathbb R}^3\) is a plane, a helicoid, a catenoid or one of the Riemann minimal examples. In particular, for every such surface, there exists a foliation of \({\mathbb R}^3\) by parallel planes, each of which intersects the surface transversely in a connected curve that is a circle or a line.