On the Morse index of Willmore spheres in S^3

DOI10.4310/CAG.2020.V28.N6.A4MaRDI QIDQ2214591zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Alexis Michelat

Publication date 9 December 2020

Published in Communications in Analysis and Geometry (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1603.09269

zbMATH Keywords

critical pointfirst and second variation of the Gauss curvaturefirst and second variation of the Willmore functionalMorse index of a critical pointSchrödinger operatorsWillmore energy functionalWillmore immersionWillmore spheres

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Variational methods for higher-order elliptic equations (35J35) PDEs on manifolds (35R01) Minimal surfaces and optimization (49Q05) Optimization of shapes other than minimal surfaces (49Q10) Surfaces in Euclidean and related spaces (53A05) Minimal surfaces in differential geometry, surfaces with prescribed mean curvature (53A10) Differential geometry of immersions (minimal, prescribed curvature, tight, etc.) (53C42) Variational problems concerning extremal problems in several variables; Yang-Mills functionals (58E15)

Abstract: We obtain an upper bound for the Morse index of Willmore spheres $Sigmasubset{S}^3$ coming from an immersion of $S^2$. The quantization of Willmore energy shows that there exists an integer $m$ such that $mathscrW(Sigma)=4pim$. Then we show that $mathrm{Ind}_{mathscrW}(Sigma)leqm$. The proof relies on an explicit computation relating the second derivative of $mathscrW$ for $Sigma$ with the Jacobi operator of the minimal surface in $mathbb{R}^3$ it is the image of by stereographic projection thanks of the fundamental classification of Robert Bryant.

Review text

The author obtains an upper bound for the Morse index of Willmore spheres \(\Sigma \subset S^3\) coming from an immersion of \(S^2\). The quantization of Willmore energy, which is a consequence of the classification of Willmore spheres in \(S^3\) by [\textit{R. L. Bryant}, J. Differ. Geom. 20, 23--53 (1984; Zbl 0555.53002)], shows that there exists an integer \(m\) such that \(\mathcal{W}(\Sigma) = 4\pi m\). The main result of this long and interesting paper shows that the Morse index \(\text{Ind}_{ \mathcal{W}}(\Sigma)\) of a Willmore sphere \(\Sigma\) satisfies the inequality \(\text{Ind}_{ \mathcal{W}}(\Sigma)\leq m\) (Theorem 1.1).

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Cited in

(9)

• On the Morse index of branched Willmore spheres in 3-space
• Pointwise expansion of degenerating immersions of finite total curvature
• The Weierstrass representation of spheres in \(\mathbb R^3\), the Willmore numbers, and soliton spheres
• The Classification of Branched Willmore Spheres in the 3-Sphere and the 4-Sphere
• On the index of Willmore spheres
• Geometry of complete minimal surfaces at infinity and the Willmore index of their inversions
• Classification of branched Willmore spheres in codimension 1
• The analysis of Willmore surfaces and its generalizations in higher dimensions
• The Willmore problem for surfaces with symmetry

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