Soap-film-like minimal surfaces spanning knots (Q1188266)

It is proved that any three times continuously differentiable, non- trivial knot in 3-dimensional Euclidean space supports a surface which minimizes area among nearby surfaces, but which does not touch all of the suppporting knot. This provides a mathematical model of a physical phenomenon occuring in soap-films. The choice of the specific type of area minimization considered is motivated by earlier work of \textit{F. J. Almgren jun.} [Mem. Am. Math. Soc. 165 (1976; Zbl 0327.49043)] and \textit{J. E. Taylor} [Ann. Math. (2) 103, 489--539 (1976; Zbl 0335.49032)]. The notion of a homotopically spanning surface is defined to determine an appropriate class of admissible surfaces, and it is shown that there is a lower bound on the area of admissible surfaces. The existence of an area minimizing admissible surface is then proved by the direct method based on earlier work of \textit{E. R. Reifenberg} [Acta Math. 104, 1--92 (1960; Zbl 0099.08503)].