Globally minimal currents and surfaces in Riemannian manifolds (Q1083728)

In the present paper the author uses the concept of generalized forms defined as continuous linear functionals on the vector space of the currents with finite mass ({\S}{\S} 1 and 2) and obtains the following ''modern Euler equation'' (Theorem 3.1) and ''Huygens algorithm'' (Theorem 3.2): if a current S is absolutely (resp. homologically) minimal with respect to a functional J and the differential \(J_ S\) is convex and bounded above in a neighbourhood of some point then there exists a quasi- exact (resp. closed) generalized form \(\omega\), such that \(J_ S(T)- \omega (T)\geq 0\) for any current T; if for a functional J and for a current S there exists a quasi-exact (resp. closed) generalized form \(\omega\), such that J(T)-\(\omega\) (T)\(\geq J(S)-\omega (S)\) for any current T, then the current S is absolutely (resp. homologically) minimal with respect to J. In the particular case when J is convex, Theorem 3.4 gives a necessary and sufficient condition for the global minimality of currents. Further, if J is an integrand, the author reduces the global condition for minimality to a family of ''pointwise'' requirements (Lemma 3.1 and Theorem 3.6). For problems with symmetric integrands the technique for studying ''bunches of the minimal directions'' by far improved in {\S} 4 gives many concrete applications in {\S} 5 (minimal currents on Kähler manifolds and on symmetric spaces).