Area minimizing surfaces of bounded genus in metric spaces (Q827415)

The authors consider a metric space \(X\) verifying a local quadratic isometric inequality for curves: this inequality involves the trace of Sobolev maps in metric spaces, see [\textit{N. J. Korevaar} and \textit{R. M. Schoen}, Commun. Anal. Geom. 1, No. 4, 561--659 (1993; Zbl 0862.58004)]. For such an \(X\) they solve the Plateau-Douglas problem which was proved for Riemannian manifolds in [\textit{J. Jost}, J. Reine Angew. Math. 359, 37--54 (1985; Zbl 0568.49025)] and [\textit{F. Tomi} and \textit{A. J. Tromba}, Existence theorems for minimal surfaces of nonzero genus spanning a contour. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS) (1988; Zbl 0638.58004)]. Namely, consider a disjoint union \(\Gamma\) of rectifiable Jordan curves in \(X\) which ``is spanned'' (the authors give a precise definition in the context of Sobolev maps in metric spaces) by a surface of genus \(p\); then the minimum of the areas of such maps from surfaces of genus \(\leq p\) is attained by a surface of genus \(\leq p\). If the infimum of the areas for the surfaces of genus \(p\) is smaller than the infimum for the surfaces of lower topological type, then this infimum is attained for a surface of genus \(p\). The authors also prove that the minimizers verify continuity up to the boundary and interior Hölder regularity. The case of \(\Gamma\) with a single component and surfaces of disk type (Plateau problem) had been solved in [\textit{A. Lytchak} and the second author, Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 223, No. 3, 1123--1182 (2017; Zbl 1369.49057)]: