Nonclassical minimizing surfaces with smooth boundary (Q2103547)

The authors prove the existence of a Riemannian metric \(g\) on \(\mathbb{R}^4\) which is arbitrarily close to the Euclidean one, and a smooth simple closed curve \(\Gamma\subset\mathbb{R}^4\) such that the unique area minimizing surface spanned by \(\Gamma\) has infinite topology. This result is related with a question posed by White. In [\textit{B. White}, Acta Math. 179, No. 2, 295--305 (1997; Zbl 0955.53008)], he conjectures that the Federer-Fleming minimal surface solution has finite genus if \(\Gamma\) is real analytic. As a consequence of the present paper, real analyticity is a necessary assumption to exclude infinite topology of the Federer-Fleming solution.