Free boundary minimal annuli in convex three-manifolds (Q2358670)

In the context of a 3-dimensional Riemannian manifold \((M,g)\), which is smooth, compact, functionally strictly convex and of nonnegative Ricci curvature, the authors show the existence of free-boundary minimal annuli. In particular, the problem is treated for convex domains of the Euclidean space \(\mathbb{R}^3.\) The authors consider a compact oriented surface \(\Sigma\) with boundary \(\partial \Sigma\) and the space \(\mathcal{E}\) of equivalence classes \([e]\) (modulo reparametrisation) of embeddings of the given surface \(\Sigma\) into \(M\), such that \(e(\partial\Sigma) \subseteq\partial M\). They denote by \(X\) a compact, connected, finite-dimensional manifold, by \((g_x)_{x\in X}\) a smooth family of Riemannian metrics with positive Ricci curvature, and by \(\mathcal{Z}(X)\) the set of all pairs \((x, [e]),\) where \(e\) is free-abboundary minimal w.r.t. \(g_x\). The purposes of the paper under review is to construct a \(\mathbb{Z}\)-valued mapping degree of the projection \(\Pi:\mathcal{Z}(X)\rightarrow X\) of \(\mathcal{Z}(X)\) onto the first factor, and to compute it in several cases. The Jacobi operator \(J := (J^h,J^\theta)\) and the perturbation operator \(P := (P^h,P^\theta)\) of an embedding are computed, and it is shown that the Jacobi operator defines a Fredholm mapping of Fredholm index zero. The notation \(h\) refers to the mean curvature and \(\theta\) denotes the boundary angle. The mean curvature and boundary angle functionals, \(H\) and \(\Theta\) respectively, are defined within a given graph chart, which homeomorphically maps open subsets of \(\mathcal{E}\) onto open subsets of \(C^\infty(\Sigma)\). Then, the relationship between the functionals \(H\), \(\Theta\) and the operators \(J\) and \(P\) are studied. Different from the standard theory of differential manifolds, the transition maps between graph charts are not smooth, but the authors use differential manifold formalism, since from elliptic regularity it follows that the restrictions of the transition maps to \(\mathcal{Z}(X)\) are smooth. Next, the authors extend \(X\) such that the solution space is a smooth compact oriented finite-dimensional differential manifold. Firstly, they extend \(X\) such that at every point of the solution space, \((H, \Theta)\) defined over each chart has surjective derivative. Using the theory of smooth functionals over Banach spaces and ellipticity, they prove that the solution space restricts to a smooth, finite-dimensional submanifold of every graph, the transition maps are smooth, and hence \(\mathcal{Z}(X)\) is a finite-dimensional differential manifold. Then, applying the standard theory of functional analysis, they construct a canonical orientation form on \(\mathcal Z(X)\), and thus they show that \(\Pi\) has a well-defined, integer-valued mapping degree. In the paper under review, the technique used to determine the degree is studied in the case when the metric \(g\) admits non-degenerate families of free-boundary minimal embeddings, i.e., smooth families such that their dimensions coincide with that of the kernel of the Jacobi operator of each element. The authors consider equivalence classes \([e]\) of embeddings in a nondegenerate family and prove that for any infinitesimal perturbation \(\delta g\) of the metric, there exists a unique infinitesimal perturbation \(\delta e\) of \(e\), such that the mean curvature of \(e + \delta e\) lies in a fixed, finite-dimensional space, identified with the cotangent space of the family at \([e]\). Moreover, by perturbing the whole family, the authors provide a smooth section of the cotangent bundle of the family. The free-boundary minimal embeddings for the perturbed metric correspond to the zeroes of this family. Then, the authors present the manner of choosing the metric perturbation, such that the above-mentioned smooth section of the cotangent bundle has non-degenerate zeroes, corresponding to free-boundary minimal embeddings with non-degenerate Jacobi operators. Since the degree theory works for metrics of positive Ricci curvature, the authors use perturbation methods on closed, strictly convex, geodesic balls in the three-dimensional sphere \(\mathbb{S}^3(t)\), where they study rotationally symmetric free-boundary minimal surfaces. The authors prove that Jacobi operators of rotationally symmetric surfaces define non-degenerate families of free-boundary minimal embeddings and estimate their contribution to the mapping degree. Adapting \textit{B. White}'s symmetry argument from [Indiana Math. Journal 40, 161--200 (1991; Zbl 0742.58009)] to the present framework, one shows that the existence of other extremal embeddings does not change the mapping degree. Combining the above-mentioned results, the main theorem of the paper is proved. This states that in a 3-dimensional Riemannian manifold \((M,g)\), which is smooth, compact, functionally strictly convex and of nonnegative Ricci curvature, there exists a properly embedded annulus \(\Sigma\subseteq M\), which is free-boundary minimal w.r.t. \(g\).