Minimal surfaces near short geodesics in hyperbolic 33-manifolds

If $M$ is a finite volume complete hyperbolic $3$-manifold, the quantity $\mathcal A_1(M)$ is defined as the infimum of the areas of closed minimal surfaces in $M$. In this paper we study the continuity property of the functional $\mathcal A_1$ with respect to the geometric convergence of hyperbolic manifolds. We prove that it is lower semi-continuous and even continuous if $\mathcal A_1(M)$ is realized by a minimal surface satisfying some hypotheses. Understanding the interaction between minimal surfaces and short geodesics in $M$ is the main theme of this paperComment: 35 pages, 4 figure

Construction of harmonic diffeomorphisms and minimal graphs

We study complete minimal graphs in HxR, which take asymptotic boundary values plus and minus infinity on alternating sides of an ideal inscribed polygon Γ in H. We give necessary and sufficient conditions on the "lenghts" of the sides of the polygon (and all inscribed polygons in Γ) that ensure the existence of such a graph. We then apply this to construct entire minimal graphs in HxR that are conformally the complex plane C. The vertical projection of such a graph yields a harmonic diffeomorphism from C onto H, disproving a conjecture of Rick Schoen

On minimal spheres of area 4π4\pi and rigidity

Let $M$ be a complete Riemannian $3$-manifold with sectional curvatures between $0$ and $1$. A minimal $2$-sphere immersed in $M$ has area at least $4\pi$. If an embedded minimal sphere has area $4\pi$, then $M$ is isometric to the unit $3$-sphere or to a quotient of the product of the unit $2$-sphere with $\mathbb{R}$, with the product metric. We also obtain a rigidity theorem for the existence of hyperbolic cusps. Let $M$ be a complete Riemannian $3$-manifold with sectional curvatures bounded above by $-1$. Suppose there is a $2$-torus $T$ embedded in $M$ with mean curvature one. Then the mean convex component of $M$ bounded by $T$ is a hyperbolic cusp;,i.e., it is isometric to $T \times \mathbb{R}$ with the constant curvature $-1$ metric: $e^{-2t}d\sigma_0^2+dt^2$ with $d\sigma_0^2$ a flat metric on $T$.Comment: 8 page