On the nondegeneracy of constant mean curvature surfaces (Q2509106)

The authors study Alexandrov-immersed constant mean curvature (CMC) surfaces in the Euclidean space. We recall that a properly immersed surface \(\Sigma\) is called Alexandrov-immersed if this immersion extends to a proper immersion of the three-manifold \(M\) bounded by \(\Sigma\). Since every end of a noncompact Alexandrov-immersed (CMC) surface is asymptotic to a Delaunay unduloid, to every end corresponds an asymptotic axis, and such a CMC surface which is homeomorphic to a sphere with \(k\) punctures (i.e., a \(k\)-unduloid) is called coplanar if all the asymptotic axes corresponding to these \(k\) ends lie in a plane. The main result of the paper states that the dimension of the space of \(L^2\) Jacobi fields along a coplanar \(k\)-unduloid is at most \(k-2\) and under some additional conditions on the classifying geodesic polygon in \(S^2\) it is at most \(k-3\). This implies, in particular, that a triunduloid is nondegenerate (i.e., the only \(L^2\) Jacobi field along the surface is the zero function) if and only if \(n_1+n_2+n_3 < 2\pi\) and \(n_i+n_j > n_k\) where \(n_1,n_2\), and \(n_3\) are the asymptotic necksizes. Other applications of the main result consist in gluing constructions of CMC surfaces.