On the existence and regularity of fundamental domains with least boundary area (Q1101977)

For a three dimensional compact smooth Riemannian manifold \({\mathcal M}\), we show that there exists a fundamental domain of \({\mathcal M}\) with least boundary area among all fundamental domains of \({\mathcal M}\) with Lipschitz boundary. When \({\mathcal M}\) is irreducible, we show that there exists a fundamental domain of \({\mathcal M}\) which is homeomorphic to an open ball and has least boundary area among all fundamental domains of \({\mathcal M}\) homeomorphic to an open ball. We also prove that the boundary of these minimizing fundamental domains consists of minimal surfaces together with Hölder continuously differentiable edges and isolated vertices. More precisely, the projection of this boundary into \({\mathcal M}\) is shown to satisfy the regularity results obtained by J. Taylor.