Willmore surfaces in 4-dimensional conformal manifolds

Abstract

This paper is dedicated to the exploration of the conformal Willmore functional for surfaces within 4-dimensional conformal manifolds. We provide a detailed calculation of both the first and second variations, and present the Euler-Lagrange equation of this functional in a conformally invariant form. Utilizing the second variation formula we derived, we demonstrate that the Clifford torus in $\mathbb{C}P^2$ is strictly Willmore-stable. This finding strongly supports the conjecture proposed by Montiel and Urbano [J. reine angew. Math. 546 2002, 139-154], which posits that the Clifford torus in $\mathbb{C}P^2$ minimizes the Willmore functional among all tori. Moreover, by applying our formula to complex curves in $\mathbb{C}P^2$, we establish that the first nonzero eigenvalue of the Jacobi operator is at least 12. In the context of 4-dimensional locally symmetric spaces, we construct several holomorphic differentials to show that among all minimal 2-spheres, only those super-minimal ones can be Willmore.