Gauss curvature estimates for the convex level sets of a minimal surface immersed in \(\mathbb R^{n+1}\) (Q555094)

The following theorem is the main result of this paper: Theorem. Let \(M\) be a minimal hypersurface with boundary immersed in \(\mathbb R^{n+1}\) Assume that the height function \(u : M \to {\mathbb R}\) corresponding to some direction \(\xi \in \mathbb R^{n+1}\) has no critical points, and assume that all the level sets of \(u\) are strictly convex. Let \(K\) be the Gauss curvature of the level sets, if \(\theta = {-1\over 2}\) or \(\theta \geq {n-3 \over 2}\), then the function \(| \nabla u|^{2\theta} K\) cannot attain its minimum at an interior point of \(M\) unless it is constant. The author applies this result to a minimal graph over a convex ring and obtains a positive lower bound for the Gauss curvature of the convex level sets in terms of the Gauss curvature of the boundary and the norm of the graph gradient.