Isothermal coordinates of \(W^{2,2}\) immersions: a counterexample (Q6998005)

The author studies isothermal coordinates for the \(W^{2,2}\) immersions of two-dimensional manifolds into Euclidean 3-space, i.e., of immersions with square integrable second fundamental form. He gives an example of a \(W^{2,2}\) immersion of the two-dimensional sphere into Euclidean 3-space for which the logarithm of the conformal factor is unbounded. \N\NThe paper is motivated by a theorem on bi-Lipschitz conformal coordinates obtained by \textit{T. Toro} in [Duke Math. J. 77, No. 1, 193--227 (1995; Zbl 0847.42011)] and by a statement, which according to the author is widespread in the literature, that \(W^{2,2}\) immersions have isothermal coordinates with uniformly bounded logarithm of the conformal factor. \par Reviewer's remark: It would be interesting to compare Toro's theorem and Plotnikov's example with Reshetnyak's theorem on isothermal coordinates in the theory of manifolds of bounded curvature, see [\textit{F. Fillastre} (ed.) and \textit{D. Slutskiy} (ed.). Reshetnyak's theory of subharmonic metrics. Cham: Springer (2023; Zbl 1530.53006)]. Recall that, according to Reshetnyak's theorem, a two-dimensional metric manifold has bounded curvature in the sense of A.D. Alexandrov if and only if its metric tensor \(ds^2\) can be written in the form \(\lambda(u,v)(du^2+dv^2)\), where the function \(\log\lambda(u,v)\) is the difference of two subharmonic functions.