Willmore-like functionals for surfaces in 3-dimensional Thurston geometries
The Bianchi-Cartan-Vranceanu family of Riemannian 3-manifolds \(E(k,\tau)\), with \(k\in {\mathbb R}\) and \(\tau \in {\mathbb R}\), is defined by the metric \[ ds^2 = {dx^2+dy^2 \over \left(1 + {k \over 4}(x^2+y^2)\right)^2} + \left( dz + {\tau(ydx-xdy)\over 1 + {k\over 4}(x^2+y^2)}\right)^2. \] on the subset of \({\mathbb R}^3\) for which \(1+ {k\over 4}(x^2+y^2) >0\). This family includes the Thurston geometries \(S^2 \times {\mathbb R}\), \(H^2 \times {\mathbb R}\), the Heisenberg group \(\mathrm{Nil}\) and \(\widetilde{\mathrm{PSL}}_2({\mathbb R})\) Let \(f : M \rightarrow E(k,\tau)\) be an immersion of the surface \(M\) into \(E(k,\tau)\). The authors define the modified Wilmore functional \[ {\mathcal E}(f) = \int_M\left( H^2 + {1\over 4} \bar K + {k\over 4} - {\tau^2 \over 4} \right) d\mu \] where \(H\) is the mean curvature, \(\bar K\) is the sectional curvature of the 2-plane \(f_*(T_pM)\) in \(E(k,\tau)\) at \(p \in M\) and \(d\mu\) is the area form of the induced metric. The main results are (1) that constant mean curvature spheres are critical points for \(\mathcal E\) and (2) that for rotationally invariant spheres in \(E(k.\tau)\), \(\mathcal E\) attains its minimum exactly on those of constant mean curvature.
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