Maximum principles at infinity (Q927629)

In this paper, maximum principles at infinity are developed for embedded complete minimal and constant mean curvature surfaces, and geometric applications are given. A maximum principle at infinity for minimal surfaces of finite total curvature was first proved by \textit{R. Langevin} and \textit{H. Rosenberg} [Duke Math. J. 57, No.~3, 819--826 (1988; Zbl 0667.49024)], and a significant generalization was given by \textit{W. H. Meeks} and \textit{H. Rosenberg} [Comment. Math. Helv. 65, No.~2, 255--270 (1990; Zbl 0713.53008)]. Results of this type first appeared in [Invent. Math. 101, No.~2, 373--377 (1990; Zbl 0722.53054)] and [J. Differ. Geom. 32, No.~1, 65-76 (1990; Zbl 0854.53009)]. The paper exhibits an impressive collection of results and is organized as follows: in Theorem~2.1 of \(\S2\) is proved that an injective minimal immersion of a complete surface of bounded Gaussian curvature into \({\mathbb R}^3\) is a proper mapping. The existence of dense, complete, triply periodic surfaces in \({\mathbb R}^3\), see Remark 2.2, makes the injectivity hypothesis necessary. In \(\S3\) some results about the conformal structure of complete Riemannian surfaces of nonnegative Gaussian curvature are given, and a new proof of \textit{F. Xavier}'s theorem [Math. Ann. 269, 179--182 (1984; Zbl 0528.53009)] that the convex hull of a complete, nonflat minimal surface of bounded curvature is all of \({\mathbb R}^3\). In \(\S4\) the authors prove the maximum principle at infinity for parabolic minimal graphs of bounded curvature. This result was proved by \textit{M. Soret} [Ann. Global Anal. Geom. 13, No.~2, 101--116 (1995; Zbl 0873.53039)]. In \(\S5\), Theorem~5.1, the proof of the general maximum principle at infinity is reduced to the case of stable minimal graphs, and the maximum principle is applied to prove in Theorem~5.3 the following regular neighborhood theorem: a connected, properly embedded minimal surface whose Gaussian curvature is bounded from below by a negative constant \(-C\) has an embedded open regular neighborhood of radius \(1/\sqrt{C}\). This implies that such a surface has at most cubical area growth with respect to the radial coordinate. A consequence given in Corollary 5.5 is that the space of connected, complete, embedded minimal surfaces with a given uniform bound on the Gaussian curvature is essentially compact in the topology of \(C^1\)-convergence in compact subsets of \({\mathbb R}^3\). In \(\S6\), the authors prove in Theorem 6.1 that an injective immersion of a surface of constant mean curvature and bounded Gaussian curvature is a proper mapping. This is the constant mean curvature counterpart of Theorem 2.1. In Theorem 6.3 is also proved the existence of an \(\varepsilon\)-tubular neighborhood on the mean convex side of the surface, a result discovered together with A. Ros. As in the minimal case, the existence of the \(\varepsilon\)-tubular neighborhood implies the surface has at most cubical area growth in terms of the distance to the origin. In \(\S7\), the authors prove that a properly immersed minimal surface of finite topology and one end that intersects a plane transversally in a finite number of components is recurrent for the Brownian motion and hence the surface is parabolic. This result was previously known under an additional embeddedness assumption.