Abstract
In this paper, we prove that every conformal minimal immersion of an open Riemann surface into \({\mathbb {R}}^n\) for \(n\ge 5\) can be approximated uniformly on compacts by conformal minimal embeddings (see Theorem 1.1). Furthermore, we show that every open Riemann surface carries a proper conformal minimal embedding into \({\mathbb {R}}^5\) (see Theorem 1.2). One of our main tools is a Mergelyan approximation theorem for conformal minimal immersions to \({\mathbb {R}}^n\) for any \(n\ge 3\) which is also proved in the paper (see Theorem 5.3).
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abraham, R.: Transversality in manifolds of mappings. Bull. Am. Math. Soc. 69, 470–474 (1963)
Alarcón, A., Fernández, I., López, F.J.: Harmonic mappings and conformal minimal immersions of Riemann surfaces into \({\mathbb{R}}^N\). Calc. Var. Partial Differ. Equ. 47, 227–242 (2013)
Alarcón, A., Forstnerič, F.: Null curves and directed immersions of open Riemann surfaces. Invent. Math. 196, 733–771 (2014)
Alarcón, A., Forstnerič, F.: Every conformal minimal surface in \({\mathbb{R}}^3\) is isotopic to the real part of a holomorphic null curve. J. Reine Angew. Math. (in press). arxiv:1408.5315
Alarcón, A., López, F.J.: Minimal surfaces in \({\mathbb{R}}^3\) properly projecting into \({\mathbb{R}}^2\). J. Differ. Geom. 90, 351–382 (2012)
Alarcón, A., López, F.J.: Properness of associated minimal surfaces. Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 366, 5139–5154 (2014)
Alarcón, A., López, F.J.: Proper holomorphic embeddings of Riemann surfaces with arbitrary topology into \({\mathbb{C}}^2\). J. Geom. Anal. 23, 1794–1805 (2013)
Bell, S.R., Narasimhan, R.: Proper holomorphic mappings of complex spaces. Encyc. Math. Sci. 69, 1–38 (1990)
Bishop, E.: Mappings of partially analytic spaces. Am. J. Math. 83, 209–242 (1961)
Černe, M., Forstnerič, F.: Embedding some bordered Riemann surfaces in the affine plane. Math. Res. Lett. 9, 683–696 (2002)
Drinovec Drnovšek, B., Forstnerič, F.: Holomorphic curves in complex spaces. Duke Math. J. 139, 203–254 (2007)
Drinovec Drnovšek, B., Forstnerič, F.: Approximation of holomorphic mappings on strongly pseudoconvex domains. Forum Math. 20, 817–840 (2008)
Eliashberg, Y., Gromov, M.: Embeddings of Stein manifolds of dimension \(n\) into the affine space of dimension \(3n/2+1\). Ann. Math. (2) 136, 123–135 (1992)
Forstnerič, F.: Manifolds of holomorphic mappings from strongly pseudoconvex domains. Asian J. Math. 11, 113–126 (2007)
Forstnerič, F.: Stein Manifolds and Holomorphic Mappings (The Homotopy Principle in Complex Analysis). Ergebnisse der Mathematik und ihrer Grenzgebiete, 3. Folge, vol. 56. Springer, Berlin (2011)
Forstnerič, F.: Oka manifolds: from Oka to Stein and back. With an appendix by Finnur Lárusson. Ann. Fac. Sci. Toulouse Math. (6) 22, 747–809 (2013)
Forstnerič, F., Lárusson, F.: Survey of Oka theory. N. Y. J. Math. 17a, 1–28 (2011)
Forstnerič, F., Wold, E.F.: Bordered Riemann surfaces in \({\mathbb{C}}^2\). J. Math. Pures Appl. 91, 100–114 (2009)
Forstnerič, F., Wold, E.F.: Embeddings of infinitely connected planar domains into \({\mathbb{C}}^2\). Anal. PDE 6, 499–514 (2013)
Garsia, A.M.: An imbedding of closed Riemann surfaces in Euclidean space. Comment. Math. Helv. 35, 93–110 (1961)
Greene, R.E., Wu, H.: Embedding of open Riemannian manifolds by harmonic functions. Ann. Inst. Fourier (Grenoble) 25, 215–235 (1975)
Gromov, M.: Oka’s principle for holomorphic sections of elliptic bundles. J. Am. Math. Soc. 2, 851–897 (1989)
Hörmander, L.: An Introduction to Complex Analysis in Several Variables, vol. 7, 3rd edn. North-Holland Mathematical Library, North Holland (1990)
Lárusson, F.: What is\(\ldots \) an Oka manifold? Not. Am. Math. Soc. 57, 50–52 (2010)
López, F.J., Ros, A.: On embedded complete minimal surfaces of genus zero. J. Differ. Geom. 33, 293–300 (1991)
III Meeks, W.H., Pérez, J.: A Survey on Classical Minimal Surface Theory. University Lecture Series, 60. American Mathematical Society, Providence (2012)
Meeks III, W.H., Pérez, J.: The classical theory of minimal surfaces. Bull. Am. Math. Soc. (N.S.) 48, 325–407 (2011)
Narasimhan, R.: Imbedding of open Riemann surfaces. Nachr. Akad. Wiss. Göttingen Math. Phys. Kl. II 1960, 159–165 (1960)
Narasimhan, R.: Imbedding of holomorphically complete complex spaces. Am. J. Math. 82, 917–934 (1960)
Nash, J.: The imbedding problem for Riemannian manifolds. Ann. Math. (2) 63, 20–63 (1956)
Osserman, R.: A Survey of Minimal Surfaces, 2nd edn. Dover, New York (1986)
Remmert, R.: Sur les espaces analytiques holomorphiquement séparables et holomorphiquement convexes. C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris 243, 118–121 (1956)
Rüedy, R.A.: Embeddings of open Riemann surfaces. Comment. Math. Helv. 46, 214–225 (1971)
Schürmann, J.: Embeddings of Stein spaces into affine spaces of minimal dimension. Math. Ann. 307, 381–399 (1997)
Whitney, H.: Collected papers. Edited and with a preface by James Eells and Domingo Toledo. Contemporary Mathematicians. Birkhäuser Boston Inc, Boston (1992)
Acknowledgments
A. Alarcón is supported by the Ramón y Cajal program of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. A. Alarcón and F. J. López are partially supported by the MINECO/FEDER Grants MTM2011-22547 and MTM2014-52368-P, Spain. F. Forstnerič is partially supported by the research program P1-0291 and the Grant J1-5432 from ARRS, Republic of Slovenia. Part of this work was made when F. Forstnerič visited the institute IEMath-Granada with support by the GENIL-SSV 2014 program. We wish to thank an anonymous referee for the remarks which lead to improved presentation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Alarcón, A., Forstnerič, F. & López, F.J. Embedded minimal surfaces in \({\mathbb {R}}^n\) . Math. Z. 283, 1–24 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00209-015-1586-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00209-015-1586-5