On the structure of complete simply connected embedded minimal surfaces (Q1312627)
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English | On the structure of complete simply connected embedded minimal surfaces |
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On the structure of complete simply connected embedded minimal surfaces (English)
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26 September 1994
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This paper deals with the following problem (Osserman): Are there complete simply connected embedded minimal surfaces in \(\mathbb{R}^ 3\) other than the helicoid and the plane? The author establishes some geometric- analytic properties of this class of surfaces by deforming them into surfaces with self-intersections. In the first part he studies the case in which the deformation of a hyperbolic surface by its associates preserves the embedded condition at any time. Here, he obtains three alternatives. Two of them ((1) \(\inf K=- \infty\); and (2) the immersion is not proper) are of clear geometric-topological character. The third one is more analytic although it is reminiscent of the helicoid. In the second part, he studies the time evolution of the self- intersections of the above deformations (including both hyperbolic and parabolic cases) for a finite time. Both parts are summarised in the main theorem of the paper, where five alternatives for a complete simply connected embedded minimal surfaces are given: the three mentioned above and two more which are satisfied by the plane and helicoid respectively. As a consequence of the Weierstrass representation of minimal surfaces in \(\mathbb{R}^ 3\), the main tools used are those of complex variables.
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helicoid
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self-intersections
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deformation
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Weierstrass representation
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