A free boundary minimal surface via a 6-sweepout (Q6158267)

The author considers the set of surfaces in the Euclidean unit 3-ball that are smooth and properly embedded except at finitely many points. After equipping this space with a topology inspired by the Simon-Smith min-max theory, he considers the \(\mathbb{Z}_2\)-cohomology of the subspace consisting of genus zero or one surfaces with area less than \(2\pi\). The main result of the article is the construction of a smooth family of surfaces in this subspace that is a 6-sweepout (in the sense of the Almgren-Pitts min-max theory). By applying the Simon-Smith min-max theory to this family, the author proves the existence of a free boundary minimal surface with genus zero or one, Morse index 4 or 5 and area in the range \((\pi,2\pi)\), which is neither the equatorial disk nor the critical catenoid.