Abstract
This paper investigates the existence of an area (or Dirichlet integral) minimizing parametric surface in a hyperbolic 3-manifold subject to a volume constraint. The existence of a minimizing surface is proved, assuming some conditions on the prescribed free homotopy class. This result implies a non-existence result of minimizing surfaces of prescribed mean curvature. A criterion for the existence of surfaces of prescribed mean curvature, which turns out to be optimal in view of the non-existence result, is also obtained.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Duzaar, F. and Steffen, K.: Area minimizing hypersurfaces with prescribed volume and boundary, Math. Z. 209 (1992), 581–618.
Duzaar, F. and Steffen, K.: Existence of hypersurfaces with prescribed mean curvature in Riemannian manifolds, Indiana Univ. Math. J. 45(4) (1996), 1045–1093.
Duzaar, F. and Steffen, K.: Parametric surfaces of least H-energy in a Riemannian manifold, Preprint, 1996.
Gulliver, R.: The Plateau problem for surfaces of prescribed mean curvature in a Riemannian manifold, J. Differential Geom. 8 (1972), 317–330.
Gulliver, R.: Regularity of minimizing surfaces of prescribed mean curvature, Ann. of Math. 97 (1973), 275–305.
Gulliver, R., Osserman, R. and Roydon, H. L.: A theory of branched immersions of surfaces, Amer. J. Math 95 (1973), 750–812.
Jost, J.: Harmonic Mappings between Riemannian Manifolds, Proc. of the Centre for Math. Anal, Australian National University, 1983.
Minsky, Y. N.: Harmonic maps into hyperbolic 3-manifolds, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 332(2) (1992), 607–632.
Osserman, O.: A proof of the regularity everywhere of the classical solution to Plateau's problem, Ann. of Math. 91 (1970), 550–569.
Schoen, R.: Analytic aspects of the harmonic map problem, in Chern, S. S. (ed.), M.S.R.I. Publ. 2 (Seminar on Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations, Berkeley, CA 1983), Springer-Verlag, New York, 1984, pp. 321–358.
Schoen, R. and Uhlenbeck, K.: Boundary regularity and miscellaneous results on harmonic maps, J. Differential Geom. 18 (1983), 253–268.
Schoen, R. and Yau, S. T.: Existence of incompressible minimal surfaces and the topology of three dimensional manifolds with non-negative scalar curvature, Ann. of Math. 110 (1979), 127–142.
Schmidt, E.: Beweis der isoperimetrischen Eigenschaft der Kugel im hyperbolischen und sphärischen Raum jeder Dimensionszahl, Math. Z. 49 (1943/1944), 1–109.
Simon, L.: Lecture on Geometric Measure Theory Proc. Cent. Math. Anal. Austr. Nat. Univ., Vol. 3, Canberra, 1983.
Steffen, K.: Flächen konstanter mittlerer Krümmung mit vorgegebenem Volumen oder Flächeninhalt, Arch. Rational Mech. Anal. 49 (1972), 97–128.
Steffen, K.: Isoperimetric inequalities and the problem of Plateau, Math. Ann. 222 (1976), 97–144.
Steffen, K. and Wente, H. C.: The non-existence of branch points in solutions to certain classes of Plateau type variational problems, Math. Z. 163 (1978), 211–238.
Toda, M.: Existence and non-existence results of H-surfaces into 3-dimensional Riemannian manifolds, Comm. Anal. Geom. 4(1–2) (1996), 161–178.
Wente, H. C.: A general existence theorem for surfaces of constant mean curvature, Math. Z. 120 (1971), 277–288.
Wente, H. C.: The Dirichlet problem with a volume constraint, Manuscripta Math. 11 (1974), 141–157.
White, B.: Infima of energy functionals in homotopy classes, J. Differential Geom. 23 (1986), 127–142.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Toda, M. On Minimizing Problems with a Volume Constraint in Hyperbolic 3-Manifolds. Annals of Global Analysis and Geometry 17, 19–42 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006576216626
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006576216626