Constant mean curvature surfaces in a half-space of \(\mathbb{R}^ 3\) with boundary in the boundary of the half-space (Q1359247)

The authors go deeply into the understanding of the structure of the set of compact constant mean curvature surfaces embedded in the Euclidean half-space \(\mathbb{R}^3_+=\{x_3\geq 0\}\) with boundary in the boundary plane \(P=\{x_3=0\}\). When the boundary curve is a circle, it follows from \textit{A. D. Alexandrov} [Vestn. Leningr. Univ. 11, 5-17 (1956; Zbl 0101.13801)] that the surface must be either a spherical cap or the planar disc. In general, little is known about the geometry and topology of the surface in terms of its boundary. The first main result of this paper is a compactness theorem which asserts that if \(M_n\subset\mathbb{R}^3_+\) is a sequence of compact embedded surfaces with constant mean curvature \(H=1\) such that \(\Gamma_n=\partial M_n\) is a sequence of embedded curves converging to a point \(p\), then there is a subsequence of \(M_n\) which converges either to the point \(p\) or to the unit sphere \(S^2\subset \mathbb{R}^3_+\) tangent to \(P\) at the point \(p\). The second main theorem gives a partial answer to the following question: if the boundary of a constant mean curvature surface \(M\subset\mathbb{R}^3_+\) is a convex curve in \(P\), is the surface a topological disc? In fact, the authors show that for a given strictly convex curve \(\Gamma\subset P\) there is a constant \(H(\Gamma)>0\), depending only on the extreme values of the curvature of \(\Gamma\), such that any surface \(M\subset\mathbb{R}^3_+\) bounded by \(\Gamma\) with constant mean curvature \(0<H<H(\Gamma)\) is a topological disc. Moreover, they also give a rather complete description of the shape of the surface, even near its boundary. As a consequence of this result, they obtain that for a given strictly convex curve \(\Gamma\subset P\) there exist constants \(V(\Gamma),A(\Gamma)>0\), depending only on the extreme values of the curvature of \(\Gamma\), such that any positive genus surface \(M\subset\mathbb{R}^3_+\) bounded by \(\Gamma\) with constant mean curvature \(H\) encloses a 3-dimensional volume less than or equal to \(V(\Gamma)\) and has area less than or equal to \(A(\Gamma)\). The main tools used in the paper are the Alexandrov reflection technique and some estimates of height, area and curvature for constant mean curvature graphs. As noted by the authors, the results of the paper extend to compact hypersurfaces with constant mean curvature embedded in the Euclidean half-space \(\mathbb{R}^{n+1}_+\) and with boundary in the boundary hyperplane \(P=\partial\mathbb{R}^{n+1}_+\). The authors finish the paper by stating some interesting problems related to the subject.