Uniqueness of minimal surfaces in Euclidean and hyperbolic 3-space (Q1340960)

The following theorem is proved. Let \(N^ 3\) denote the Euclidean space \(\mathbb{R}^ 3\) or the hyperbolic space \(H^ 3\). Let \(\Gamma\) be a closed Jordan curve of class \(C^{3, \alpha}\) in \(M^ 3\) with total curvature \(\leq 4\pi\). Then \(\Gamma\) bounds precisely one minimal surface of disk type which is free of branch points. This result was proved by \textit{J. C. C. Nitsche} [Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 52, 319-329 (1973; Zbl 0285.49001)] for analytic curves in \(\mathbb{R}^ 3\) and by \textit{R. Gulliver} and \textit{J. Spruck} [Ann. Math., II. Ser. 103, 331-347 (1976; Zbl 0347.49033)] for \(C^{4,\alpha}\) curves in \(\mathbb{R}^ 3\) provided that the total curvature is \(<4\pi\). The proof depends on using the implicit function theorem to build a foliation \(F\) of a neighborhood of a minimal surface \(\Sigma\) spanned by \(\Gamma\) such that \(F\) contains \(\Sigma\) as a leaf. From this, it can be shown that \(\Sigma\) is locally area-minimizing, and this allows the application of the mountain-pass theorem, hence the uniqueness of \(\Sigma\).