Research projects

Constant curvature surfaces

E-FQM-309-UGR18
March 1, 2020 — June 3, 2022
CURVCONST is a 3-year project funded by the Programa Operativo FEDER of the Junta de Andalucía (E-FQM-309-UGR18) in the Investigador Emergente category. The principal investigator is Francisco Torralbo.

About the project

The aim of the proyectos emergentes subcall of the Programa operativo FEDER of the Junta de Andalucía is to promote the recruitment of talent as well as the consolidation of young researcher. The principal investigator is hired by the project funding during its three year duration.

Objectives

The research line of CURVCONST can be situated on the edge between Differential Geometry and Partial Differential Equaions, a branch of Mathematics called Geometric Analysis. The main goal is to study the role played by the different notions of curvature in the properties of a surface from different points of view. The project focus on the conditions of constant Gauss, constant mean and parallel mean curvature, being the last one the natural generalization of constant mean curvature to codimension bigger than one, in a wide family of 3 and 4-manifolds.

Team

CURVCONST brings together young researchers from the Dpt. Geometry and Topology of the University of Granada, the Dpt. of Mathematics of the University of Jaen, and the Geometry Section of the Mathematics Department of KU Leuven .

Publications

Peer-reviewed published papers

  • , , & , Conjugate Plateau constructions in product spaces. New trends in Geometric Analysis, 10, , 43118.
    Abstract

    This survey paper investigates, from a purely geometric point of view, Daniel’s isometric conjugation between minimal and constant mean curvature surfaces immersed in homogeneous Riemannian three-manifolds with isometry group of dimension four. On the one hand, we collect the results and strategies in the literature that have been developed so far to deal with the analysis of conjugate surfaces and their embeddedness. On the other hand, we revisit some constructions of constant mean curvature surfaces in the homogeneous product spaces $\mathbb{S}^2\times \mathbb{R}$, $\mathbb{H}^2\times \mathbb{R}$ and $\mathbb{R}^3$ having different topologies and geometric properties depending on the value of the mean curvature. Finally, we also provide some numerical pictures using Surface Evolver.

  • , , Horizontal Delaunay surfaces with constant mean curvature in $\mathbb{S}^2\times \mathbb{R}$ and $\mathbb{H}^2\times \mathbb{R}$. Camb. J. Math., 10(3), , 657688.
    Abstract

    We obtain a $1$-parameter family of horizontal Delaunay surfaces with positive constant mean curvature in $\mathbb{S}^2\times\mathbb{R}$ and $\mathbb{H}^2\times\mathbb{R}$, being the mean curvature larger than $\frac{1}{2}$ in the latter case. These surfaces are not equivariant but singly periodic, lie at bounded distance from a horizontal geodesic, and complete the family of horizontal unduloids previously given by the authors. We study in detail the geometry of the whole family and show that horizontal unduloids are properly embedded in $\mathbb H^2\times\mathbb{R}$. We also find (among unduloids) families of embedded constant mean curvature tori in $\mathbb S^2\times\mathbb{R}$ which are continuous deformations from a stack of tangent spheres to a horizontal invariant cylinder. In particular, we find the first non-equivariant examples of embedded tori in $\mathbb{S}^2\times\mathbb{R}$, which have constant mean curvature $H>\frac12$. Finally, we prove that there are no properly immersed surface with constant mean curvature $H\leq\frac{1}{2}$ at bounded distance from a horizontal geodesic in $\mathbb{H}^2\times\mathbb{R}$.

  • , , Index of compact minimal submanifolds of the Berger spheres. Calc. Var. Partial Differential Equations, 61(104), , .
    Abstract

    The stability and the index of compact minimal submanifolds of the Berger spheres $\mathbb{S}^{2n+1}_{\tau}$, $0<\tau\leq 1$, are studied. Unlike the case of the standard sphere ($\tau=1$), where there are no stable compact minimal submanifolds, the Berger spheres have stable ones if and only if $\tau^2\leq 1/2$. Moreover, there are no stable compact minimal $d$-dimensional submanifolds of $\mathbb{S}^{2n+1}_\tau$ when $1 / (d+1) < \tau^2 \leq 1$ and the stable ones are classified for $\tau^2=1 / (d+1)$ when the submanifold is embedded. Finally, the compact orientable minimal surfaces of $\mathbb{S}^3_{\tau}$ with index one are classified for $1/3\leq\tau^2\leq 1$.

  • , , Compact embedded surfaces with constant mean curvature in $\mathbb{S}^2 \times \mathbb{R}$. Amer. J. Math., 142(6), , 19811994.
    Abstract

    We obtain compact orientable embedded surfaces with constant mean curvature $0 < H \leq \frac{1}{2}$ and arbitrary genus in $\mathbb{S}^2\times\mathbb{R}$. These surfaces have dihedral symmetry and desingularize a pair of spheres with mean curvature $\frac{1}{2}$ tangent along an equator. This is a particular case of a conjugate Plateau construction of doubly periodic surfaces with constant mean curvature in $\mathbb{S}^2 \times \mathbb{R}$, $\mathbb{H}^2 \times \mathbb{R}$ hand $\mathbb{R}^3$ with bounded height and enjoying the symmetries of certain tessellations of $\mathbb{S}^2$, $\mathbb{H}^2$ and $\mathbb{R}^2$ by regular polygons.

  • , , Rotationally invariant constant Gauss curvature surfaces in the Berger spheres. J. Math. Anal. Appl., 489, , 112.
    Abstract

    We give a full classification of complete rotationally invariant surfaces with constant Gauss curvature in Berger spheres: they are either Clifford tori, which are flat, or spheres of Gauss curvature $K \geq K_0$ for a positive constant $K_0$, which we determine explicitly and depends on the geometry of the ambient Berger sphere. For values of $K_0 \leq K \leq K_P$, for a specific constant $K_P$, it was not known until now whether complete constant Gauss curvature $K$ surfaces existed in Berger spheres, so our classification provides the first examples. For $K > K_P$, we prove that the rotationally invariant spheres from our classification are the only topological spheres with constant Gauss curvature in Berger spheres.