Simply connected minimal surfaces in \(\mathbb{R}^3\) transverse to horizontal planes (Q1386174)

It is an old problem to prove that the only complete, embedded, simply connected minimal surfaces \(M\) in \(\mathbb{R}^3\) are the plane and the helicoid. Several partial results are known, and the results of this paper are also partial. It was previously known that, if the minimal surface \(M\) intersects each plane \(x_3= \text{constant}\) in at most one curve (which is diffeomorphic to \(\mathbb{R}\)) and if the Gaussian curvature \(K\) of \(M\) is bounded, then \(M\) has conformal type of the plane \(C\) and \(M\) is a helicoid or a plane. In this paper, the authors study complete simply connected minimal surfaces meeting each horizontal plane transversally in a finite number \(n\) of connected curves. If \(n\) is uniformly bounded and \(K\) is bounded, they show that \(M\) is conformally \(C\). If, in addition, \(M\) is embedded, it is proved that \(M\) is a helicoid or a plane. In addition, an example is constructed of an immersed \(M\) where the number \(n\) is not bounded and \(M\) is conformally a disk. The proof of the theorem involves the boundary behavior of functions which are meromorphic in the disk.