Genus zero complete maximal maps and maxfaces with an arbitrary number of ends (Q6122549)

Similar to minimal surfaces in \(\mathbb{R}^3\), maximal surfaces are immersions with zero mean curvature in the Lorentz-Minkowski space \(\mathbb{E}^{3}_{1}\). Maximal surfaces share many similarities with minimal surfaces, such as being critical points of the area functional and admitting the Weierstrass-Enneper representation. However, the theory of complete maximal immersions is limited compared to the theory of complete minimal surfaces: the plane is the only complete maximal immersion. For this reason, maximal maps are studies, which generalize maximal immersions by allowing singularities. For instance maxfaces are a subclass of generalized maximal immersions where the singularities occur only at points where the limiting tangent plane contains a light-like vector. The authors prove the existence of a genus-zero complete maximal map with a prescribed singularity set and an arbitrary number of simple and complete ends. They also discuss the conditions under which this maximal map can be made into a complete maxface.