Minimal surfaces with only horizontal symmetries (Q555235)

The Schwarz reflection principle states that a minimal surface in \({\mathbb R}^3\) is invariant under reflections in the plane of its principal geodesics and also invariant under \(180^\circ\)-rotation about its straight lines. With these properties, M. Weber introduced a horizontal symmetry and a vertical symmetry. A horizontal symmetry is a reflection at a vertical plane or a rotation about a horizontal line. A vertical symmetry is a reflection at a horizontal plane or a rotation about a vertical line. It is easy to find complete minimal surfaces in \({\mathbb R}^3\) -- except the triply periodic minimal surfaces -- for which these symmetries are either only horizontal or only vertical. For instance, the Costa surface has only horizontal symmetries. The doubly periodic examples found by \textit{W. H. Meeks III} and \textit{H. Rosenberg} [Invent. Math. 97, No.~2, 351--379 (1989; Zbl 0676.53068)] have only vertical symmetries. However, in the class of triply periodic minimal surfaces, almost all known examples have either both or none of these symmetries, after a suitable motion in \({\mathbb R}^3\). In this paper, the authors give existence proofs for examples that are triply periodic minimal surfaces with only horizontal symmetries, of which the translation group is given by an orthogonal lattice. They prove that there exists a one-parameter family of triply periodic minimal surfaces in \({\mathbb R}^3\) such that the quotient of each surface by its translation group has genus 9, and the whole surface is generated by a fundamental piece, which is a surface with boundary consisting of four curves, each contained in a vertical plane.