Screw motion surfaces in \(\mathbb H^2 \times \mathbb R\) and \(\mathbb S^2\times \mathbb R\) (Q819240)

This paper is a study of minimal and constant mean curvature surfaces in the ambient spaces \(H^2 \times \mathbb R\) and \(S^2 \times \mathbb R\) (\(H^2\) is hyperbolic two-space, \(S^2\) is the two-dimensional round sphere, and \(\mathbb R\) is the reals). Letting \(t\) denote the height in the \(\mathbb R\) component of these ambient product spaces, and letting \(N\) denote the unit normal of the surfaces, one can define a holomorphic quadratic differential \(Q\) using the induced Riemannian connection on the surface along with \(N\) and \(t\) and the constant mean curvature \(H\). Such surfaces with screw motion symmetry about the \(t\)-axis are considered. Let \(\ell\) denote the pitch of the screw motion. Explicit formulas are given for such surfaces with this screw motion symmetry, and techniques are given for then explicitly computing \(Q\). Amongst the results obtained are the following: 1) surfaces with nonzero \(Q\) are shown to exist; 2) embedded minimal examples in \(H^2 \times \mathbb R\) are obtained; 3) immersed complete minimal examples in \(S^2 \times \mathbb R\) are obtained; 4) an explicit formula for the metrics of these examples is obtained; 5) it is shown that any two isometric minimal examples in either \(H^2 \times \mathbb R\) or \(S^2 \times \mathbb R\) are associate (meaning that the absolute values of their respective Hopf functions are the same); 6) it is shown that catenoids and helicoids in \(H^2 \times \mathbb R\) have a conjugate correspondence precisely when the condition \(\ell < 1\) holds. This paper includes numerous other interesting results not commented on here, as well. It also includes numerous graphics.