Curvature estimates for stable free boundary minimal hypersurfaces (Q2295705)

Let \(M^m\) be a Riemannian manifold and \(N^n\) an embedded submanifold of \(M\). The critical points of the \(k\)-area functional on the space of immersed submanifolds \(\Sigma^k\) with boundary \(\partial \Sigma \subset N\) are called free-boundary minimal submanifolds. They are stable if they minimize area up to second order. In this paper the authors obtain uniform curvature estimates for immersed stable free-boundary minimal hypersurfaces satisfying a uniform area bound when \(3\leq m \leq 7\) and \( n= m-1\). They also obtain a monotonicity formula for free-boundary minimal submanifolds in Riemannian manifolds for any dimension and codimension. Finally, they obtain a stronger curvature estimate, without the \textit{a priori} area bound, for properly embedded stable free-boundary minimal surfaces in three-dimensional manifolds with boundary.