A martingale approach to minimal surfaces (Q1017685)

This paper presents an approach to study minimal surfaces using Brownian motion and the methods of martingale theory. After a discussion of the basic relationship between Brownian motion on a surface and minimality of the surface, the author introduces a way of coupling Brownian motions on a pair of minimal surfaces such that the particles are ``encouraged'' to couple in finite time. This coupling is then used to study two classes of results in minimal surface theory, maximum principle-type results, such as weak and strong halfspace theorems and the maximum principle at infinity, and Liouville theorems.