arXiv research

We characterise the maps into the space of $2$-spheres in $S^n$ that are the conformal Gauss maps of conformal immersions of a surface. In particular, we give an invariant formulation and efficient proof of a characterisation, due to Dorfmeister--Wang \cites{DorWan13,DorWan}, of the harmonic maps that are conformal Gau…

The paper studies the space of Gauss maps of complete minimal surfaces and their homotopy types.

Study of Demoulin surfaces using Gauss maps and conformal coordinates.

In this paper we make a detailed and self-contained study of the conformalGauss map. Then, starting from the seminal work of R. Bryant and the notion of conformal Gauss map, we recover many fundamental properties of Willmore surfaces. We also get new results like some characterizations of minimal and constant meancurva…

Study of umbilic points on Willmore surfaces in 3-sphere.

In this paper we introduce the fourth fundamental form for the hypersurfaces in $H^{n+1}$ and the space-like hypersurfaces in $S_{1}^{n+1}$ and discuss the conformality of the normal Gauss maps of the hypersurfaces in $H^{n+1}$ and $S_{1}^{n+1}$. Particularly, we discuss the surfaces with conformal normal Gauss maps in…

Classifies branched Willmore spheres using conformal Gauss maps.

A Willmore surface $y:M\rightarrow S^{n+2}$ has a natural harmonic oriented conformal Gauss map $Gr_y:M\rightarrow SO^{+}(1,n+3)/SO(1,3)\times SO(n)$, which maps each point $p\in M$ to its oriented mean curvature 2-sphere at $p$. An easy observation shows that all conformal Gauss maps of Willmore surfaces satisfy a res…

Proves energy quantization for surfaces with bounded index.

Study of Gauss maps for minimal surfaces in a specific 3D model.

In this note we demonstrate how the analogy between the harmonic Gauss map of a constant mean curvature surface and the harmonic conformal Gauss map of a Willmore surface can be used to obtain results on Willmore surfaces.

We describe some general constructions on a real smooth projective 4-quadric which provide analogues of the Willmore functional and conformal Gauss map in both Lie sphere and projective differential geometry. Extrema of these functionals are characterized by harmonicity of this Gauss map.

Study on Gauss map of anisotropic minimal surfaces with Morse index estimates.

The paper builds a DPW approach of Willmore surfaces via conformal Gauss maps. As applications, we provide descriptions of minimal surfaces in $\mathbb R^{n+2}$, isotropic surfaces in $S^4$ and homogeneous Willmore tori via the loop group method. A new example of a Willmore two-sphere in $S^6$ without dual surfaces is …

The paper shows that the Gauss map of minimal surfaces is open and meagre in the space of holomorphic maps.

Let $M$ be an open Riemann surface and let $Λ\subset M$ be a closed discrete subset. In this paper, we prove the existence of complete conformal minimal immersions $M\to\mathbb{R}^n$, $n\ge 3$, with prescribed values on $Λ$ and whose generalized Gauss map $M\to\mathbb{CP}^{n-1}$, $n\ge 3$, avoids $n$ hyperplanes of $\m…

Wintgen ideal submanifolds in space forms are those ones attaining equality pointwise in the so-called DDVV inequality which relates the scalar curvature, the mean curvature and the scalar normal curvature. They are Moebius invariant objects. The mean curvature sphere defines a conformal Gauss map into a Grassmann mani…

Let $M$ be an open Riemann surface. We prove that every meromorphic function on $M$ is the complex Gauss map of a conformal minimal immersion $M\to\mathbb{R}^3$ which may furthermore be chosen as the real part of a holomorphic null curve $M\to\mathbb{C}^3$. Analogous results are proved for conformal minimal immersions …

We consider conformal immersions of Riemann surfaces in $\bb{S}^4$ and study their Gauss maps with values in the Grassmann bundle $\mathcal{F} = SO_5/T^2 \to \mathbb{S}^4$. The energy of maps from Riemann surfaces into $\mathcal{F}$ is considered with respect to the normal metric on the target and immersions with harmo…

For a surface in the 3-dimensional real projective space, we define a Gauss map, which is a quadric in $\mathbb R^{4}$ and called the first-order Gauss map. It will be shown that the surface is a Demoulin surface if and only if the first-order Gauss map is conformal, and the surface is a projective minimal coincidence …

Paper connects hypersurfaces in 4D to surfaces in 3-sphere.

We introduce a new perspective on the classical Nirenberg problem of understanding the possible Gauss curvatures of metrics on $S^{2}$ conformal to the round metric. A key tool is to employ the smooth Cheeger-Gromov compactness theorem to obtain general and essentially sharp a priori estimates for Gauss curvatures $K$ …

We elucidate the geometric background of function-theoretic properties for the Gauss maps of several classes of immersed surfaces in three-dimensional space forms, for example, minimal surfaces in Euclidean three-space, improper affine spheres in the affine three-space, and constant mean curvature one surfaces and flat…

We consider the energy and bienergy functionals as variational problems on the set of Riemannian metrics and present a study of the biharmonic stress-energy tensor. This approach is then applied to characterise weak conformality of the Gauss map of a submanifold. Finally, working at the level of functionals, we recover…

Fourth-order problem on half-ball with corner behavior.

The paper discusses Gauss maps for Möbius surfaces in spheres and their applications to Willmore surfaces.

Survey of Willmore surfaces in spheres using DPW method.

Our first objective in this paper is to give a natural formulation of the Christoffel problem for hypersurfaces in $H^{n+1}$, by means of the hyperbolic Gauss map and the notion of hyperbolic curvature radii for hypersurfaces. Our second objective is to provide an explicit equivalence of this Christoffel problem with t…

In this paper we provide a systematic discussion of how to incorporate orientation preserving symmetries into the treatment of Willmore surfaces via the loop group method. In this context we first develop a general treatment of Willmore surfaces admitting orientation preserving symmetries, and then show how to induce f…

For an oriented isometric immersion $f:M\to S^n$ the spherical Gauss map is the Legendrian immersion of its unit normal bundle $UM^\perp$ into the unit sphere subbundle of $TS^n$, and the geodesic Gauss map $γ$ projects this into the manifold of oriented geodesics in $S^n$ (the Grassmannian of oriented 2-planes in $\ma…

We study the non-embddability property for a class of real hypersurfaces, called real hypersurfaces of involution type, into the sphere in the low codimensional case, by making use of property of a naturally related Gauss curvature. We also study rigidity problems for conformal maps between a class of Kähler manifolds …

We consider immersions of a Riemann surface into a manifold with $G_2$-holonomy and give criteria for them to be conformal and harmonic, in terms of an associated Gauss map.

We establish Bernstein Theorems for Lagrangian graphs which are Hamiltonian minimal or have conformal Maslov form. Some known results of minimal (Lagrangian) submanifolds are generalized.

The main goal of this paper is to reveal the geometric meaning of the maximal number of exceptional values of Gauss maps for several classes of immersed surfaces in space forms, for example, complete minimal surfaces in the Euclidean three-space, weakly complete improper affine spheres in the affine three-space and wea…

Estimates curvature for holomorphic maps on Riemann surfaces.

New curvature measures for 4D manifolds with corners defined and related to Gauss-Bonnet.

We prove that for any open Riemann surface $M$ and any non constant harmonic function $h:M \to \mathbb{R},$ there exists a complete conformal minimal immersion $X:M \to \mathbb{R}^3$ whose third coordinate function coincides with $h.$ As a consequence, complete minimal surfaces with arbitrary conformal structure and wh…

The aim of this paper is to give a new link between integrable systems and minimal surface theory. The dressing operation uses the associated family of flat connections of a harmonic map to construct new harmonic maps. Since a minimal surface in 3-space is a Willmore surface, its conformal Gauss map is harmonic and a d…

We prove a version of the classical Runge and Mergelyan uniform approximation theorems for non-orientable minimal surfaces in Euclidean 3-space R3. Then, we obtain some geometric applications. Among them, we emphasize the following ones: 1. A Gunning-Narasimhan type theorem for non-orientable conformal surfaces. 2. An …

For a surface in 3-sphere, by identifying the conformal round 3-sphere as the projectivized positive light cone in Minkowski 5-spacetime, we use the conformal Gauss map and the conformal transform to construct the associate homogeneous 4-surface in Minkowski 5-spacetime. We then derive the local fundamental theorem for…

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…

We prove that for any open Riemann surface $N,$ natural number $n\geq 3,$ non-constant harmonic map $h:N\to \mathbb{R}^{n-2}$ and holomorphic 2-form $H$ on $N,$ there exists a weakly complete harmonic map $X=(X_j)_{j=1,\ldots,n}:N \to \mathbb{R}^n$ with Hopf differential $H$ and $(X_j)_{j=3,\ldots,n}=h.$ In particular,…

The goal of the present paper is to investigate the algebraic structure of global conformal invariants of submanifolds. These are defined to be conformally invariant integrals of geometric scalars of the tangent and normal bundle. A famous example of a global conformal invariant is the Willmore energy of a surface. In …

A compact Riemann surface is derived from a moduli space of equilateral pentagons.

In this paper we deal with the global properties of Willmore surfaces in spheres via the harmonic conformal Gauss map using loop groups. We first derive a global description of those harmonic maps which can be realized as conformal Gauss maps of some Willmore surfaces (Theorem 3.4, Theorem 3.11 and Theorem 3.18). Then …

It is shown in the paper "Variational Properties of the Gauss-Bonnet Curvatures" of M.L. Labbi, that metrics with constant 2k-Gauss-Bonnet curvature on a closed n-dimensional manifold, 1<2k<n, are critical points for a certain Hilbert type functional with respect to volume preserving conformal variations. This motivate…

In this article, we construct a new para-Kähler structure $({\mathcal G},{\mathcal J},Ω)$ in the space of oriented geodesics ${\mathbb L}(M)$ in a non-flat, real space form $M$. We first show that the para-Kähler metric ${\mathcal G}$ is scalar flat and when $M$ is a 3-dimensional real space form, ${\mathcal G}$ is loc…

We compute renormalized curvature integrals on Poincaré-Einstein manifolds.