Adjoint transform of Willmore surfaces in \(\mathbb {S}^n\) (Q2502196)

This article studies conformal surfaces in an \(n\)-dimensional sphere in the context of Möbius geometry, i.e. seeing \({\mathbb S}^n\) as the projectivised light cone \(\mathcal L\) of the \((n+2)\)-Minkowski space. This point of view enables to associate to a conformal immersion of a surface \(M\) in \({\mathbb S}^n\), a Lorentzian sub-bundle which, once complexified, admits an invariant frame, leading to the conformal Gauss map from \(M\) into \(G_{3,1}({\mathbb R}^{n+1,1})\) and a conformal pull-back metric on \(M\). With respect to this metric \(M\) is a Willmore surface exactly if the conformal Gauss map is harmonic. In an attempt to draw a parallel with isothermal surfaces, a new transform of Willmore surfaces is introduced, via some invariants of surface pairs, called touch and co-touch (thought as generalisations of tangency). They are based on the canonical lift of \(f: M \to {\mathbb S}^n\) to the light cone \(\mathcal L\). Then, the adjoint of a Willmore surface \(f: M \to {\mathbb S}^n\) is defined to be a map \(\tilde{f}: M \to {\mathbb S}^n\) conformal to \(f\) which co-touches the central sphere of \(f\). Surprisingly, the adjoint transform of a Willmore surface is again a Willmore surface. Finally, a pair of conformal surfaces are adjoint Willmore surfaces if and only if the bi-vector formed by the exterior product of their lifts to the light cone is a harmonic map into \(G_{1,1}({\mathbb R}^{n+1,1})\).