On the Gauss Map of Minimal Graphs

DOI10.1080/0278107031000064498MaRDI QIDQ4433239zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Allen Weitsman, Daoud Bshouty

Publication date 8 March 2004

Published in Complex Variables, Theory and Application: An International Journal (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1080/0278107031000064498

zbMATH Keywords

dilatationharmonic mappingminimal surface

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Quasiconformal mappings in the complex plane (30C62) Harmonic, subharmonic, superharmonic functions in two dimensions (31A05) Boundary behavior (theorems of Fatou type, etc.) of harmonic functions in two dimensions (31A20) Nonlinear elliptic equations (35J60) Minimal surfaces and optimization (49Q05) Minimal surfaces in differential geometry, surfaces with prescribed mean curvature (53A10)

Review text

The authors study minimal surfaces in the explicit form \(\varphi = \varphi (x,y)\) over a Jordan domain \(D\). Here, the function \(\varphi\) has infinite boundary values almost everywhere on \(\partial D \), where the exceptional points form a finite subset of \( \partial D\). These surfaces have been considered in detail by \textit{H. Jenkins} and \textit{J. Serrin} [See Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 21, 321-342 (1966; Zbl 0171.08301)]. The best known example of such a surface is Scherk's surface. In general, minimal surfaces can be investigated from the viewpoint of its Gauss map which in this case is closely related to a meromorphic function \( G: \{\zeta :|\zeta|<1\} \rightarrow \{w :|w|>1\} \cup \{ \infty \}\). Analyzing this class of minimal surfaces the authors show that \(G(\zeta)\) has the form \(c/B(\zeta)\) with a constant \(c\) of modulus 1, where \(B\) is a special Blaschke product. Furthermore, they find relations between the changes in sign of the boundary values \(\infty \) or \(- \infty \) and geometric properties of the corresponding vertices of \(\partial D \). Finally, assuming the representation \( G(\zeta) =c/B(\zeta)\) for the Gauss map they characterize minimal graphs with such a Gauss map. The proofs in the paper are based on the use of properties of the univalent harmonic mapping \( \zeta \mapsto x(\zeta)+iy(\zeta)\) in \(\{ \zeta: |\zeta |< 1 \}\), where the coordinate functions \(x=x(\zeta)\) and \(y=y(\zeta)\) occur in the conformal representation of these minimal surfaces via the Weierstrass formulas.

Recommendations

• MINIMAL SURFACES WITH SOUND OR PATHOLOGICAL GAUSS MAPS
• Some function theoretic properties of the Gauss map for hyperbolic complete minimal surfaces
• Meromorphic functions on \(\mathbb{C}\) and the Gauss map of complete minimal surfaces
• Parabolicity and Gauss map of minimal surfaces
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1257294

Cited in

(10)

• Minimal surfaces whose Gauss map covers periodically the pointed upper half-sphere exactly once
• Zero-curvature point of minimal graphs
• Minimal surfaces over stars
• On the Jacobian of minimal graphs in ℝ⁴
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 4179393 (Why is no real title available?)
• MINIMAL SURFACES WITH SOUND OR PATHOLOGICAL GAUSS MAPS
• Parabolicity and Gauss map of minimal surfaces
• A solution to Sheil-Small’s harmonic mapping problem for polygons
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 18151 (Why is no real title available?)
• Harmonic maps between annuli on Riemann surfaces

This page was built for publication: On the Gauss Map of Minimal Graphs

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q4433239)