Modified defect relations for the Gauss map of minimal surfaces. II (Q2640149)

[For part I, cf. ibid. 29, No.2, 245-262 (1989; Zbl 0676.53005).] In part I (loc. cit.) the author introduced some new types of modified defects and gave a defect relation for the Gauß map of a minimal surface in \({\mathbb{R}}^ 3\) similar to the defect relation in Nevanlinna theory. The purpose of this paper is to generalize these results to minimal surfaces in \({\mathbb{R}}^ m\) (m\(\geq 3)\). The main result is a modified defect relation for holomorphic maps. As a special case we get the theorem: Let M be a complete minimal surface in \({\mathbb{R}}^ m\) with nondegenerate Gauß map G. Then G can omit at most \(m(m+1)/2\) hyperplanes. A similar result holds for Riemann surfaces holomorphically immersed in \({\mathbb{C}}^ m\).