The affine Cauchy problem (Q2518275)

Affine maximal surfaces whose Euler-Lagrange equations are nonlinear fourth order partial differential equations and a very important and interesting object in affine differential geometry. This class of surfaces has become a research topic of great activity and has received many interesting contributions since Calabi's work in 1982. In this paper the authors consider the Cauchy problem for locally strongly convex surfaces which are extremal for the equiaffine area functional. They give a new complex representation which allow to describe the solution of the corresponding Cauchy problem. As an application, the authors obtain a generalized symmetry principle, characterize when a curve in \(\mathbb R^3\) can be a geodesic or pre-geodesic of a such surface and study the helicoidal affine maximal surfaces. Finally, the existence and uniqueness of affine maximal surfaces with a given analytic curve in its singular set are investigated.