An embedded minimal surface with no symmetries (Q1424002)

The study of complete, properly embedded minimal surfaces of finite total curvature in Euclidean space received an important impetus in 1984, when C. Costa constructed a new example besides hitherto known plane and catenoid. His example was generalized by D. Hoffman and W. Meeks, who constructed an entire family of such surfaces with number of periods equal to 2, using Weierstrass representation. \textit{N. Kapouleas} [J. Differ. Geom. 47, No. 1, 95--169 (1997; Zbl 0936.53006)] constructed large families of embedded minimal surfaces of finite total curvature, relying on the apparatus of PDEs and a fixed point theorem. Intuitively his method involves desingularizing a family of catenoids with the same axis. His surfaces have high genus and order of dihedral symmetry. Recent results of \textit{M. Weber} and \textit{M. Wolf} [Ann. Math. (2) 156, No. 3, 713--795 (2002; Zbl 1028.53009)] produce minimal surfaces with eight symmetries and the genus equal to the the number of ends minus two. The author of the present paper constructs embedded minimal surfaces of finite total curvature with explicit Weierstrass data without a priori restrictions on the genus and number of symmetries. This is accomplished by gluing catenoids and planes, \(N\) parallel planes with small catenoidal necks between them, and the planes perturbed to have logarithmic growth at infinity. As a byproduct of the author's investigation the existence of an embedded minimal surface in \(\mathbb R^3\) with no symmetries is obtained.