The viscosity method for min-max free boundary minimal surfaces (Q2127909)

Let \(\Sigma\) be a compact oriented surface with boundary, \((\mathcal{M},g)\) a closed Riemannian manifold, and \(\mathcal{N}\) a closed embedded submanifold of \(\mathcal{M}\). Consider immersions \(\Phi :\Sigma \to \mathcal{M}\) constrained such that \(\Phi(\partial \Sigma) \subset\mathcal{N}\). The author studies the asymptotic behavior of the critical maps \(\Phi\) for the functional \[ E_\sigma(\Phi) :=\mathrm{area}(\Phi)+ \sigma\mathrm{length}(\Phi|_{\partial\Sigma})+\sigma^4\int_\Sigma ||\mathrm{II}^\Phi ||\mathrm{vol}_\Phi,\] as the parameter \(\sigma\) approaches \(0\). Here, \(\mathrm{II}^\Phi\) is the second fundamental form of the immersion \(\Phi\), and \(\mathrm{vol}_\Phi\) is the volume form for the metric induced on \(\Sigma\) by \(\Phi\). In this paper he adapts \textit{T. Rivière}'s viscosity method in the min-max theory of minimal surfaces [Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 126, 177--246 (2017; Zbl 1387.53084)] to the free boundary problem described above.