Carleman approximation by conformal minimal immersions and directed holomorphic curves (Q2287349)

A classical theorem of Carleman says that, given any continuous functions \(f:\mathbb{R}\rightarrow \mathbb{C}\) and \(\varepsilon :\mathbb{R}\rightarrow (0,\infty )\), there is an entire function \(g:\mathbb{C}\rightarrow \mathbb{C}\) such that \(\left\vert f(x)-g(x)\right\vert <\varepsilon (x)\) when \(x\in \mathbb{R}\). This paper establishes several results of this nature related to minimal surface theory. Let \(S\) be a smooth properly embedded image of \(\mathbb{R}\) in an open Riemann surface \(\mathcal{R}\). It is shown that, given any continuous map \(X:S\rightarrow \mathbb{R}^{n}\), \(n\geq 3\), and continuous function \(\varepsilon :S\rightarrow (0,\infty )\), there is a complete conformal minimal immersion \(\widetilde{X}:\mathcal{R}\rightarrow \mathbb{R}^{n}\) such that \(\left\Vert \widetilde{X}(p)-X(p)\right\Vert<\varepsilon (p)\) when \(p\in S\). An analogous result for directed immersions is also provided. Applications include an approximate solution to the Plateau problem for divergent paths.