Free boundary minimal surfaces with connected boundary in the 3-ball by tripling the equatorial disc (Q6158171)

The authors consider free boundary minimal surfaces in the Euclidean unit 3-ball \(\mathbb{B}^3\). Such minimal surfaces meet the boundary \(\partial \mathbb{B}^3\) orthogonally along their boundary. The equatorial disc is a simple example. The critical catenoid is also an example studied in relation to an analogue of Weinstock's inequality ([\textit{A. Fraser} and \textit{R. Schoen}, Adv. Math. 226, No. 5, 4011--4030 (2011; Zbl 1215.53052)]). See also [\textit{A. Fraser} and \textit{R. Schoen}, Invent. Math. 203, No. 3, 823--890 (2016; Zbl 1337.35099)] for examples of embedded free boundary minimal surfaces in \(\mathbb{B}^3\) with genus zero and arbitrary number of boundary components. See [\textit{A. Folha}, \textit{F. Pacard} and \textit{T. Zolotareva}, Manuscripta Math. 154, No. 3--4, 359--409 (2017; Zbl 1381.35040)] for examples by doubling constructions. And see [\textit{N. Kapouleas} and \textit{M. M.-C. Li}, J. Reine Angew. Math. 776, 201--254 (2021; Zbl 1478.53108)] for examples constructed by desingularizing the intersection of a coaxial pair of an equatorial disc and a critical catenoid. In this paper, the authors construct examples of embedded free boundary minimal surfaces in \(\mathbb{B}^3\) with connected boundary and prescribed high genus. The construction is based on tripling the equatorial disc, i.e., connecting three copies of the equatorial disc with half-catenoidal bridges.