Existence result for minimal hypersurfaces with a prescribed finite number of planar ends (Q5928173)

By use of tools from nonlinear analysis some authors produced new minimal surfaces in \(R^3\) [e.g., \textit{N. Kapouleas}, J. Differ. Geom. 47, 95-169 (1997; Zbl 0936.53006)]; some authors studied the properties of the moduli space of such surfaces [e.g., \textit{J. Perez} and \textit{A. Ros}, Indiana Univ. Math. J. 45, 177-204 (1996; Zbl 0864.53008)]. Parallel to what has been done for minimal surfaces in \(R^3\), the authors develop a gluing procedure to produce for any \(k\geq 2\) and any \(n\geq 3\) complete immersed minimal hypersurfaces of \(R^{n+1}\) which have \(k\) planar ends. The surfaces are of the topological type of a sphere with \(k\) punctures and they all have finite total curvature.