A connected sum construction for complete minimal surfaces of finite total curvature. (Q5929599)

The author demonstrates how a given, finite collection of complete, oriented, non-flat finite total curvature minimal surfaces immersed in the Euclidean 3-spaces can be glued together by means of catenoidal necks of very small neck size to form a new connected minimal surface. Additionally, an arbitrary finite number of catenoidal ends (again of small neck size) may be attached. The glueing of the catenoidal bridges as well as that of the catenoidal ends may be performed at preassigned locations on the initial surfaces, the combinatorial structure of the resulting surface being that of a tree with the given surfaces as vertices and the catenoidal bridges as edges (disregarding the additional catenoidal ends). A basic requirement for the construction is that the initial minimal surfaces must not have any bounded Jacobi fields apart from those generated by translations. The first step then consists in the construction of an approximately minimal surface by the glueing process. Actually, a sufficiently high-dimensional family of such approximately minimal surfaces is constructed by perturbing ends and relative positions of the surfaces. The decisive technical ingredient is a profound analysis of the linearized minimal surface equation on approximately minimal surfaces. In this process one of them is singled out to be finally perturbed into a minimal surface. In this work the author draws substantially from the ideas and methods of his thesis advisor N. Kapouleas who initiated this type of singular perturbation in connection with constant mean curvature surfaces.