Min-max theory for free boundary minimal hypersurfaces. II: General Morse index bounds and applications (Q2664157)

For any smooth Riemannian metric on an \((n+1)\)-dimensional compact manifold with boundary \((M,\partial M)\) where \(3\leq n+1\leq 7\), the authors establish general upper bounds for the Morse index of free boundary minimal hypersurfaces produced by min-max theory in the Almgren-Pitts setting. They apply their Morse index estimates to prove that for almost every (in the \(C^{\infty}\) Baire sense) Riemannian metric, the union of all compact, properly embedded free-boundary minimal hypersurfaces is dense in \(M\). If \(\partial M\) is further assumed to have a strictly mean convex point, they show the existence of infinitely many compact, properly embedded free boundary minimal hypersurfaces whose boundaries are non-empty. Their results prove a conjecture of Yau for generic metrics in the free-boundary setting. For Part I, see [the second and last author, ``Min-max theory for free boundary minimal hypersurfaces. I: Regularity theory'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1611.02612}].