A necessary condition for the existence of a doubly connected minimal surface (Q2406450)

The author considers a minimal surface in \(\mathbb{R}^3\) bounded by two circles, \(C_1\) and \(C_2\) of radii \(r_1\) and \(r_2\) inside two parallel planes \(\Pi_1\) and \(\Pi_2\). When the \(C_i\)'s are coaxial, they bound a catenoid together only if the distance \(h\) between the \(\Pi_i\)'s (also called the \textit{height} of the catenoid) is smaller than a critical value \(h_0(r_1,r_2)\); otherwise the only minimal surface bounded by the \(C_i\)'s are two disks. The estimate of \(h_0\) is a classical question in minimal surfaces and in this paper, the author looks at the case when the circles \(C_i\) are not coaxial; if they bound together a minimal surface having the conformal type of an annulus, this surface is a piece of a Riemann minimal surface. \textit{J. C. C. Nitsche} [Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 19, 1303--1305 (1968; Zbl 0167.11402)] has shown that a necessary condition for this surface to exist is that the circles overlap, i.e., their orthogonal projection on a plane parallel to the \(\Pi_i\)'s has nonempty intersection. The author gives a necessary lower bound for this overlap in terms of the height of the Riemann minimal surface and illustrates these estimates by tables of numerical computations obtained via Mathematica. In another section, he compares the height and waist (radius of the smallest circle parallel to the \(\Pi_i\)'s) of a catenoid and of a piece of a Riemann minimal surface; in particular ``the height of a symmetric Riemann minimal surface is strictly less than the height of a catenoid of the same boundary radius and waist''.