Regularity theory for \(2\)-dimensional almost minimal currents. III: Blowup (Q2199668)

In [J. Am. Math. Soc. 1, No. 4, 699--778 (1988; Zbl 0667.49026)], \textit{S. X. D. Chang} showed that 2-dimensional area-minimizing currents in Riemannian manifolds are classical minimal surfaces, namely they are regular except for a discrete set of branching singularities. If \(\Sigma\subset\mathbb{R}^{m+n}\) is a \(C^2\) submanifold and \(U\subset\mathbb{R}^{m+n}\) is an open set, then (i) an \(m\)-dimensional integral current \(T\) with finite mass and \(\mathrm{spt}(T)\subset\Sigma\cap U\) is area-minimizing in \(\Sigma\cap U\) provided that \(\mathbf M(T)\leq\mathbf M(T+\partial S)\) for any \((m+1)\)-dimensional integral current \(S\) with \(\mathrm{spt}(S)\subset\!\subset\Sigma\cap U\), (ii) a semicalibration in \(\Sigma\) is a \(C^1\) \(m\)-form \(\omega\) on \(\Sigma\) such that \(\|\omega_x\|_c\leq 1\) at every \(x\in\Sigma\), where \(\|\cdot\|_c\) denotes the comass norm on \(\Lambda^mT_x\Sigma\), and an \(m\)-dimensional integral current \(T\) with \(\mathrm{spt}(T)\subset\Sigma\) is semicalibrated by \(\omega\) if \(\omega_x(\vec{T})=1\) for \(\|T\|\)-a.e. \(x\), (iii) an \(m\)-dimensional integral current \(T\) supported in \(\partial\,\mathbf{B}_{\overline{R}}(p)\subset\mathbb{R}^{m+n}\) is called a spherical cross-section of an area-minimizing cone if \(p\!\times \!\! \! \! \times T\) is area-minimizing. If \(T\) is an integer rectifiable current, then \(\mathrm{Reg}(T)\) is the subset of \(\mathrm{spt}(T)\backslash\mathrm{spt}(\partial T)\) consisting of those points \(x\) for which there is a neighborhood \(U\) such that \(T\llcorner U\) is a regular submanifold. Correspondingly, \(\mathrm{Sing}(T)\) is the set \(\mathrm{spt}(T)\backslash (\mathrm{spt}(\partial T)\cup\mathrm{Reg}(T))\). In this paper, the authors analyze the asymptotic behavior of a 2-dimensional integral current which is almost minimizing in a suitable sense at a singular point. The main result of the paper states that if \(m=2\), \(T\) satisfies (i)-(iii), \(\Sigma\) is of class \(C^{3,\varepsilon_0}\), and \(\omega\) is of class \(C^{2,\varepsilon_0}\) for some positive \(\varepsilon_0\), then \(\mathrm{Sing}(T)\) is discrete and for each \(p\in\mathrm{Sing}(T)\) there is a neighborhood \(U\) in which \(T\) can be decomposed into finitely many branched disks intersecting only at \(p\).