Willmore surfaces on \(\mathbb{R}^4\) and the Whitney sphere (Q5936999)

The article is concerned with compact Willmore surfaces \(\varphi: \Sigma\to \mathbb{R}^4\), i.e. critical ``points'' of the Willmore functional \(\varphi\mapsto \int_\Sigma\|H_\varphi \|^2 dA\), which are Lagrangian surfaces of \(\mathbb{C}^2 \cong\mathbb{R}^4\), i.e., the multiplication by \(i\) maps each tangent plane of \(\varphi\) onto its normal plane at the same point. On the one hand, the authors show that there exists only one such surface of genus zero, namely the Whitney sphere. On the other hand, inspired by ideas of \textit{U. Pinkall} [Invent. Math. 81, 379-386 (1985; Zbl 0585.53051)] they construct a new class of Lagrangian Willmore tori, and they classify Lagrangian Willmore surfaces whose image under an inversion is again a Lagrangian surface.