S^ 1-equivariant minimal tori in S^ 4 and S^ 1-equivariant Willmore tori in S^ 3

Differential geometry of immersions (minimal, prescribed curvature, tight, etc.) (53C42) Global differential geometry of Lorentz manifolds, manifolds with indefinite metrics (53C50)

Abstract: In this paper we study maps (curved flats) into symmetric spaces which are tangent at each point to a flat of the symmetric space. Important examples of such maps arise from isometric immersions of space forms into space forms via their Gauss maps. Further examples are found in conformal geometry, e.g. the curved flats obtained from isothermic surfaces and conformally flat 3-folds in the 4-sphere. Curved flats admit a 1-parameter family of deformations (spectral parameter) which enables us to make contact to integrable system theory. In fact, we give a recipe to construct curved flats (and thus the above mentioned geometric objects) from a hierarchy of finite dimensional algebraically completely integrable flows.

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The authors determine all the minimal tori in the Euclidean resp. Lorentzian sphere \[ S^ 4_{\epsilon}:=\{(\xi,z,w)\in {\mathbb{R}}\times {\mathbb{C}}\times {\mathbb{C}}| \quad \epsilon \xi^ 2+z\bar z+w\bar w=1\} \] which are invariant under the one-parameter group \(G(m,n):(\xi,z,w)\mapsto (\xi,\exp (im\phi)z,\quad \exp (in\phi)w)\) for fixed m,n\(\in {\mathbb{Z}}\) with \(0<m<n\) and \((m,n)=1\). By a well known relation of the Lorentzian case to the geometry in the Euclidean sphere \(S^ 3:=\{(z,w)\in {\mathbb{C}}\times {\mathbb{C}}| \quad z\bar z+w\bar w=1\},\) all the Willmore tori in \(S^ 3\) which are invariant under the group \((z,w)\mapsto (\exp (im\phi)z,\quad \exp (in\phi)w),\) are then equally known. The method is as follows: Following \textit{W.-Y. Hsiang} and \textit{H. B. Lawson jun.} [J. Differ. Geom. 5, 1-38 (1971; Zbl 0219.53045)], the tori looked for in \(S^ 4_{\epsilon}\) correspond to closed (spacelike) geodesics in the orbit space \(S^ 3_{\epsilon}:=S^ 4_{\epsilon}/G(m,n),\) endowed with a certain Riemannian metric \(g_ 1\) conformal to the squared infinitesimal orthogonal distance between orbits (where singular points may be excluded here). The closed geodesics are calculated by applying Hamilton-Jacobi theory to the geodesic flow of \(S^ 3_{\epsilon}\). The flow is completely integrable, as is proven by specifying three independent integrals \(H_ 0\), \(H_ 1\), \(H_ 2\), where \(H_ 0\) is the geodesic energy and \(H_ 1+iH_ 2\) is (essentially) the coefficient of the associated quartic Abelian differential in isothermic surface coordinates \(z=x+iy\). Some beautiful computer pictures show embedded examples of the resulting Willmore tori which, after stereographic projection of \(S^ 3\) to \({\mathbb{R}}^ 3\) look like closed plaits.

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