Free boundary minimal surfaces in the unit 3-ball (Q1679197)

Let \(B^3\) be the Euclidean 3-dimensional unit ball. The authors study minimal surfaces that are embedded in \(B^3\) and which meet the sphere \(S^2\) orthogonally; these are the ``free boundary minimal surfaces'' of the title. \textit{A. Fraser} and \textit{R. Schoen} [Invent. Math. 203, No. 3, 823--890 (2016; Zbl 1337.35099)] proved the existence of such surfaces which have genus 0 and \(n\)-boundary components for all \(n\geq3\). The authors give another independent proof of this result for \(n\) sufficiently large by doubling constructions of \textit{N. Kapouleas} [``Minimal surfaces in the round three-sphere by doubling the equatorial two-sphere. I'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1409.0226}] and \textit{N. Kapouleas} and \textit{S.-D. Yang} [Am. J. Math. 132, No. 2, 257--295 (2010; Zbl 1198.53060)]. They also establish the existence of free boundary minimal surfaces in \(B^3\) which have genus 1 and \(n\) boundary components for all \(n\) sufficiently large.