On J. C. C. Nitsche type inequality for annuli on Riemann surfaces (Q522327)

Let \(A(a, b)\) be the annulus \(\{x\in\mathbb{R}^n : a < |x| < b\}\) in the Euclidean space \(\mathbb{R}^n\), \(n\geq2\). The \(n\)-dimensional generalization of Nitsche's conjecture is to prove that the existence of a Euclidean harmonic homeomorphism between annuli \(A(r,1)\) and \(A(\rho,1)\) is equivalent to an inequality \(\rho<\rho_r\), where \[ \displaystyle\rho_r=\frac{nr}{n-1+r^n} \] and is inspired by the radial harmonic mapping \[ f(x) =\left(\frac{1-r^{n-1}\rho}{1-r^n}+\frac{r^{n-1}\rho-r^n}{(1-r^n)|x|^n}\right)x\,. \] In this paper, the author considers harmonic mappings between certain annuli of the Riemannian surfaces \((\mathcal{N};\hbar)\) and \((\mathcal{M};\wp)\) with conformal metrics \(\hbar\) and \(\wp\) respectively, and study the Nitsche type problem for the harmonic homeomorphism between an annulus \(\mathcal{A}\subset\mathcal{N}\), with a conformal modulus Mod(\(\mathcal{A}\)), and a geodesic annulus \(A_\wp(p;\rho_1;\rho_2)\subset\mathcal{M}\). Let the conformal metric \(\wp(w)|dw|\) has Gaussian curvature that is bounded from above by a constant. It is proved that if there exists a harmonic homeomorphism between an doubly connected domain \(\mathcal{A}\subset\mathcal{N}\) and a geodesic annulus \(A_\wp(p;\rho_1;\rho_2)\subset\mathcal{M}\), then \[ \frac{\rho_2}{\rho_1}\geq \Psi_\wp\,\text{Mod}^2(\mathcal{A})+1\,, \] where \(\Psi_\wp\) is a certain positive constant depending on the upper bound of the Gaussian curvature of the metric \(\wp\). An application to minimal surfaces is given.