Characterizing classical minimal surfaces via the entropy differential (Q2411207)

The authors introduce a meromorphic quadratic differential, called the entropy differential, on any smooth oriented minimal surface in the Euclidean 3-space, which arises naturally in a number of different contexts. They characterize several classical surfaces -- including Enneper's surface, the catenoid and the helicoid -- in terms of the entropy differential. As an application, they prove a novel curvature estimate for embedded minimal surfaces with small entropy differential and an associated compactness theorem.