Willmore surfaces with nonremovable singularities and number of critical levels (Q2516890)

Let \(\Sigma\subset\mathbb{R}^n\) be a closed and embedded surface of class \(W^{2,2}\), where \(\mathbb{R}^n\) is the \(n\)-dimensional Euclidean space and \(W^{2,2}\) the Sobolev space of functions that are square integrable together with their first and second derivatives. The Willmore energy of \(\Sigma\) is defined by \[ \mathcal{W}(\Sigma):=\frac{1}{4}\int_{\Sigma}|\mathbf{H}_{\Sigma}|^2d\mu_{\Sigma} \] where \(\mathbf{H}_{\Sigma}\) is the mean curvature vector of \(\Sigma\) and \(\mu_{\Sigma}\) the induced area measure on \(\Sigma\). Two important quantities in the theory of Willmore surfaces are: \[ \beta^n_p=\inf\big\{\mathcal{W}(\Sigma):\Sigma\subset\mathbb{R}^n,\,\,\Sigma\,\,\text{a closed and orientable surface of genus }p\big\} \] where \(p,n\in\mathbb{N}\) with \(n\geq 3\), and \[ \tilde{\beta}^n_p=\min\left\{4\pi+\sum_{i=1}^k\big(\beta^n_{p_i}-4\pi\big):1\leq p_i<p,\,\,\sum_{i=1}^kp_i=p\right\}, \] where \(p,n\in\mathbb{N}\) with \(p\geq 2\) and \(n\geq 3\). The first aim of the paper under review is to show the existence of closed and orientable surfaces with at least two non-removable point singularities for any prescribed genus. In particular, the following result is shown: Theorem 1: For every \(p,n\in\mathbb{N}\) with \(n\geq 3\), there exists a closed and orientable Willmore surface \(\Sigma\subset\mathbb{R}^n\) of genus \(p\) with at least two non-removable point singularities and \(\mathcal{W}(\Sigma)<8\pi\). The second aim of the paper is to prove the following pinching theorem: Theorem 2: For any \(p,n\in\mathbb{N}\) with \(n\geq 3\), there is a constant \(\varepsilon^n_p>0\) such that there exists no closed and orientable Willmore surface in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) of genus \(p\) with Willmore energy in the interval \((\beta^n_p,\beta^n_p+\varepsilon^n_p)\). The last aim of the article is to show the following result: Theorem 3: For any \(p,n\in\mathbb{N}\) with \(p\geq 1\) and \(n\in\{3,4\}\), \(\delta>0\), the Willmore functional viewed as a map on the set of smooth closed and orientable surfaces in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) of genus \(p\), has only a finite number of critical levels below \(\min\big\{8\pi,\tilde{\beta}^n_p\big\}-\delta\).