A maximum principle at infinity for surfaces with constant mean curvature in Euclidean space (Q5960164)

Maximum principles are valuable tools in minimal and constant mean curvature surfaces theories. They can be extended to situations in which the point of contact is ``at infinity''. For minimal surfaces some results of this type have been proved by \textit{R. Langevin} and \textit{H. Rosenberg} [Duke Math. J. 57, No.~3, 819-826 (1988; Zbl 0667.49024)], by \textit{W. H. Meeks III} and \textit{H. Rosenberg} [Comment. Math. Helv. 65, No.~2, 255-270 (1990; Zbl 0713.53008)] and, under a parabolicity hypothesis, by \textit{M. Soret} [Ann. Global Anal. Geom. 13, No.~2, 101-116 (1995; Zbl 0873.53039)]. The author proves a maximum principle at infinity for surfaces with the same constant mean curvature in Euclidean space. He shows in Theorem~1: ``Let \(M_{1}\) and \(M_{2}\) be two disjoint, complete, properly embedded surfaces in \(\mathbb{R}^3\) with constant mean curvature \(H\), bounded Gaussian curvature and nonempty boundaries. If \(M_{1}\) and \(M_{2}\) have an ideal contact at infinity and one of them is parabolic then \[ \min\{d(M_{1},\partial M_{2}), d(M_{2},\partial M_{1})\}=0.\text{''} \] The surfaces \(M_{1}\) and \(M_{2}\) have an ideal contact at infinity if there are sequences of interior points \(x_{n}\in M_{1}\), \(y_{n}\in M_{2}\), such that \(\lim_{n\to\infty} d(x_{n},y_{n})=0\), and either \(\left<x_{n}-y_{n},\mathbf{H}_{2}(y_{n})\right>\geq 0\) or \(\left<y_{n}-x_{n},\mathbf{H}_{1}(x_{n})\right>\geq 0\), for all \(n\). Here \(\mathbf{H}_{i}\) denotes the mean curvature vector of \(M_{i}\). A consequence of this result, stated as Corollary~1, is the following: ``Let \(M_{1}\), \(M_{2}\) be disjoint, complete, embedded surfaces in \(\mathbb{R}^3\) with constant mean curvature \(H\), bounded Gaussian curvatures and empty boundaries. If one of them is parabolic, then one surface cannot lie in the mean convex side of the other.'' A result slightly stronger than this corollary has been proved by \textit{A. Ros} and \textit{H. Rosenberg} [``Properly embedded surfaces with constant mean curvature'' (preprint)].