Second order contact of minimal surfaces. (Q1866477)

The author casts an alternative look at classical minimal surface theory. Let \(M\) be a surface minimally immersed in \(\mathbb{R}^3\) and let \(n: M\to\mathbb{S}^2\subset\mathbb{R}^3\) be its Gauss map identifying the tangent spaces \(T_xM\) and \(T_{n(x)}\mathbb{S}^2\), the differential \(n'\) of \(n\) maps the tangent bundle \(TM\) into the vector bundle \(Q\) over \(\mathbb{S}^2\) of traceless symmetric endomorphisms of the tangent spaces of \(\mathbb{S}^2\). Assuming that \(M\) is free of umbilic (= flat) points, this map has values in \(Q\setminus 0\) where \(0\) denotes the zero-section of \(Q\). The author then introduces the \(\mathbb{R}^3\)-valued 1-form \(\omega\) on \(Q\setminus 0\) whose value at \((s, q)\in Q\setminus 0\) is defined as \(q^{-1}ds\) and, by an elementary calculation, he shows that \((n')^*\omega= d\iota\), where \(\iota: M\to\mathbb{R}^3\) is the inclusion map. Assuming furthermore that \(n'\) is a diffeomorphism onto a submanifold \(C\) of \(Q\setminus 0\) it follows immediately that \(\iota\) can be reconstructed (up to translations) by path integrals of \(\omega| C\), in particular \(\omega| C\) is closed. The assignment of such a \(C\) to any \(M\) can also be reversed, locally, and thus the mapping \(n'\) establishes a local equivalence between the minimal surfaces in \(\mathbb{R}^3\) with nowhere vanishing curvature, modulo translations, and the 2-dimensional smooth submanifolds \(C\) of \(Q\setminus 0\) such that \(\omega| C\) is closed and \(C\) is transversal to the fibres of the projection \(Q\to \mathbb{S}^2\). The author then develops the complex version of this formalism by introducing a complex structure on \(Q\) such that \(\omega\) is the real part of a holomorphic \((1, 0)\)-form \(\Omega\) on \(\mathbb{Q}\setminus 0\) and the restriction of \(\omega\) on a real 2-dimensional submanifold \(C\subset Q\setminus O\) is closed iff \(C\) is a complex analytic curve in \(Q\setminus O\). Locally, the reconstruction of \(M\) by means of \(C\) and \(\Omega\) then corresponds to the classical Enneper-Weierstrass formulae. Moreover, the author studies the compactification around isolated singularities which can be points of vanishing curvature or, more importantly, ``flat'' points at infinity with a removable singularity of the Gauss map. Periodic surfaces are included here. For minimal surfaces of finite topology and only finite or infinite flat points as singularities the compactified complex curve \(C\) is shown to be complex algebraic. Finally, the author rederives in his setting a number of classical results on and examples of minimal surfaces.