Null curves and directed immersions of open Riemann surfaces (Q2247933)

The central theme of the paper are \(A\)-immersions \(F=(f_1,\dots,f_n): M\rightarrow\mathbb C^n\) of compact bordered or open Riemann surfaces \(M\), holomorphic in the interior of \(M\) and directed by an irreducible conical subvariety \(A\subset\mathbb C^n\) in the sense that \((f_1(z),\dots,f_n(z))\in A\) for any local coordinate \(z\) on \(M\). In addition, the authors assume that \(A\backslash\{0\}\) is non-singular and that \(A\) is not contained in a hyperplane. Their concept generalizes the theory of null curves in \(\mathbb C^3\) and \(\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb C)\), i.e., \(A\)-immersions where \(A\) equals the complex quadric \(\{(z_1,z_2,z_3)\in\mathbb C^3\,|\,z_1^2+z_2^2+z_3^2=0\,\}\) or the cone \(\{Q\in \mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb C)\,|\,\det Q=0\}\). These curves are known to be very closely related to minimal surfaces in \(\mathbb R^3\) and to Bryant surfaces in the hyperbolic space \(\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb C)/\mathrm{SU}(2,\mathbb C)\) respectively. The paper contains a variety of results about various spaces of \(A\)-immersions, the approximation of local \(A\)-immersions by global ones and results about the approximation of \(A\)-immersions by \(A\)-embeddings. In particular the authors prove an Oka principle for \(A\)- immersions, an approximation theorem of Runge-type and Mergelyan's approximation theorem for \(A\)-immersions. Finally they suggest as a future project the generalisation of the results from open Riemann surfaces to Stein manifolds of arbitrary dimension.