Properly embedded minimal planar domains (Q2255290)

It follows from the minimal surface equation that the plane, the catenoid and the helicoid are examples of properly embedded, minimal planar domains in \({\mathbb R}^3\). And it is well known that those surfaces are of finite topology. A planar domain is a connected surface that embeds in the plane. Around 1860, Riemann discovered examples of properly embedded, minimal planar domains in \({\mathbb R}^3\) with infinite topology. These examples, called the Riemann minimal examples by the authors, appear in a one-parameter family \({\mathcal R}_t, t \in (0, \infty)\), and satisfy the property that, after a rotation, each \({\mathcal R}_t\) intersects every horizontal plane in a circle or in a line. Moreover the \({\mathcal R}_t\) have natural limits being a vertical catenoid as \(t \to 0\) and a vertical helicoid as \(t \to \infty\). In this paper, the authors analyze the Riemann minimal examples and prove that the only connected properly embedded, minimal planar domains in \({\mathbb R}^3\) with infinite topology are the Riemann minimal examples. From this result together with previously well-known facts, the authors complete the classification of properly embedded, minimal planar domains in \({\mathbb R}^3\). Namely, they show that, up to scaling and rigid motion, any connected, properly embedded, minimal planar domain in \({\mathbb R}^3\) is a plane, a helicoid, a catenoid or one of the Riemann minimal examples. In particular, for every such surface, there exists a foliation of \({\mathbb R}^3\) by parallel planes, each of which intersects the surface transversely in a connected curve that is a circle or a line.