Minimal tori in S^3

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Publication:953016



Abstract: We prove existence results that give information about the space of minimal immersions of 2-tori into S3. More specifically, we show that �egin{enumerate} item For every positive integer n, there are countably many real n-dimensional families of minimally immersed 2-tori in S3. Every linearly full minimal immersion T2oS3 belongs to exactly one of these families. item Let mathcalA be the space of rectangular 2-tori. There is a countable dense subset mathcalB of mathcalA such that every torus in mathcalB can be minimally immersed into S3. end{enumerate} The main content of this manuscript lies in finding minimal immersions that satisfy {�f periodicity conditions} and hence obtaining maps of tori, rather than simply immersions of the plane. We make use of a correspondence, established by Hitchin, between minimal tori in S3 and algebraic curve data.


The author studies minimal immersions of tori in the 3-dimensional sphere \(S^3(1)\). The starting point of the study is the work of \textit{N. J. Hitchin} [J. Differ. Geom. 31, No.~3, 627--710 (1990; Zbl 0725.58010)], who established an explicit bijection between harmonic maps to tori in the 3-sphere and spectral curve data (which contains an hyperelliptic curve \(\Sigma\) and a line bundle over \(\Sigma\)). The main result of the paper shows that for any strictly positive number \(g\), there are countably many spectral curves of arithmetic genus \(g\) giving rise to minimal immersions from rectangular tori to \(S^3\). As a corollary it is shown that for each positive integer \(n\), there exist countably many real \(n\)-dimensional families of minimal immersions from rectangular tori to \(S^3\). Each of these families consists of maps from a fixed torus. The proof of the theorem naturally divides into 2 cases depending on whether \(g\) is even or odd. Whereas the even case is quite similar to previous results for minimal tori in \(\mathbb R^3\), the odd case needs more work. The paper also contains a list of some remaining open questions and problems related to minimal tori in \(S^3\).











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