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Ernst Kuwert

Publications and source records attributed to Ernst Kuwert.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2024

Curvature Varifolds with Orthogonal Boundary

We consider the class $S^m_\perp(Ω)$ of $m$-dimensional surfaces in $\barΩ \subset {\mathbb R}^n$ which intersect $S = \partial Ω$ orthogonally along the boundary. A piece of an affine $m$-plane in $S^m_\perp(Ω)$ is called an orthogonal slice. We prove estimates for the area by the $L^p$-integral of the second fundamental form in three cases: first when $Ω$ admits no orthogonal slices, second for $m = p = 2$ if all orthogonal slices are topological disks, and finally for all $Ω$ if the surfaces are confined to a neighborhood of $S$. The orthogonality constraint has a weak formulation for curvature varifolds. We classify those varifolds of vanishing curvature. As an application, we prove for any $Ω$ the existence of an orthogonal $2$-varifold which minimizes the $L^2$ curvature in the integer rectifiable class.

math.DG↗
arXiv2019

An area bound for surfaces in Riemannian manifolds

Let $M$ be a compact Riemannian manifold not containing any totally geodesic surface. Our main result shows that then the area of any complete surface immersed into $M$ is bounded by a multiple of its extrinsic curvature energy, i.e. by a multiple of the integral of the squared norm of its second fundamental form.

math.DG↗
arXiv2019

Reflection of Willmore surfaces with free boundaries

We study immersed surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^3$ which are critical points of the Willmore functional under boundary constraints. The two cases considered are when the surface meets a plane orthogonally along the boundary, and when the boundary is contained in a line. In both cases we derive weak forms of the resulting free boundary conditions and prove regularity by reflection.

math.DG↗
arXiv2019

Asymptotic estimates for the Willmore flow with small energy

Kuwert and Schätzle showed in 2001 that the Willmore flow converges to a standard round sphere, if the initial energy is small. In this situation, we prove stability estimates for the barycenter and the quadratic moment of the surface. Moreover, in codimension one we obtain stability bounds for the enclosed volume and averaged mean curvature. As direct applications, we recover a quasi-rigidity estimate due to De Lellis and Müller (2006) and an estimate for the isoperimetric deficit by Röger and Schätzle (2012), whose original proofs used different methods.

math.DG↗
arXiv2017

Asymptotics of Willmore minimizers with prescribed small isoperimetric ratio

We consider surfaces in ${\mathbb R}^3$ of type ${\mathbb S}^2$ which minimize the Willmore functional with prescribed isoperimetric ratio. The existence of smooth minimizers was proved by Schygulla (Archive Rational Mechanics and Analysis, 2012). In the singular limit when the isoperimetric ratio converges to zero, he showed convergence to a double round sphere in the sense of varifolds. Here we give a full blowup analysis of this limit, showing that the two spheres are connected by a catenoidal neck. Besides its geometric interest, the problem was studied as a simplified model in the theory of cell membranes, see e.g. Berndl, Lipowsky, Seifert (Physical Review A, 1991).

math.DG↗
arXiv2014

Local solutions to a free boundary problem for the Willmore functional

We consider a free boundary problem for the Willmore functional. Given a smooth domain $Ω$ in ${\mathbb R}^3$, we construct Willmore disks wich are critical in the class of surfaces meeting $\partial Ω$ orthogonally along their boundary and having small prescribed area. Using rescaling we first obtain constrained solutions with prescribed two-dimensional barycenter, and then study the variation of the barycenter.

math.DG↗
arXiv2011

Existence of immersed spheres minimizing curvature functionals in compact 3-manifolds

We study curvature functionals for immersed 2-spheres in a compact, three-dimensional Riemannian manifold M. Under the assumption that the sectional curvature of M is strictly positive, we prove the existence of a smoothly immersed sphere minimizing the L^{2} integral of the second fundamental form. Assuming instead that the sectional curvature is less than or equal to 2, and that there exists a point in M with scalar curvature bigger than 6, we obtain a smooth 2-sphere minimizing the integral of 1/4|H|^{2} +1, where H is the mean curvature vector.

math.DG↗
arXiv2011

Two-dimensional curvature functionals with superquadratic growth

For two-dimensional, immersed closed surfaces $f:Σ\to \R^n$, we study the curvature functionals $\mathcal{E}^p(f)$ and $\mathcal{W}^p(f)$ with integrands $(1+|A|^2)^{p/2}$ and $(1+|H|^2)^{p/2}$, respectively. Here $A$ is the second fundamental form, $H$ is the mean curvature and we assume $p > 2$. Our main result asserts that $W^{2,p}$ critical points are smooth in both cases. We also prove a compactness theorem for $\mathcal{W}^p$-bounded sequences. In the case of $\mathcal{E}^p$ this is just Langer's theorem \cite{langer85}, while for $\mathcal{W}^p$ we have to impose a bound for the Willmore energy strictly below $8π$ as an additional condition. Finally, we establish versions of the Palais-Smale condition for both functionals.

math.AP↗
arXiv2010

Minimizers of the Willmore functional under fixed conformal class

We consider the problem of minimizing the Willmore energy in the class of conformal immersions of a given closed, genus p Riemann surface into R^n for n=3,4. We prove existence of a smooth minimizer, provided that the infimum is below a certain bound ${\cal W}(n,p)$. For tori in R^3 we have explicitely ${\cal W}(3,1) = 8π$.

math.DG↗
arXiv2010

$W^{2,2}$-conformal immersions of a closed Riemann surface into $\R^n$

We study sequences $f_k:Σ_k \to \R^n$ of conformally immersed, compact Riemann surfaces with fixed genus and Willmore energy ${\cal W}(f) \leq Λ$. Assume that $Σ_k$ converges to $Σ$ in moduli space, i.e. $ϕ_k^\ast(Σ_k) \to Σ$ as complex structures for diffeomorphisms $ϕ_k$. Then we construct a branched conformal immersion $f:Σ\to \R^n$ and Möbius transformations $σ_k$, such that for a subsequence $σ_k \circ f_k \circ ϕ_k \to f$ weakly in $W^{2,2}_{loc}$ away from finitely many points. For $Λ< 8π$ the map $f$ is unbranched. If the $Σ_k$ diverge in moduli space, then we show $\liminf_{k \to \infty} {\cal W}(f_k) \geq \min(8π,ω^n_p)$. Our work generalizes results in \cite{K-S3} to arbitrary codimension.

math.DG↗
arXiv2010

Closed surfaces with bounds on their Willmore energy

The Willmore energy of a closed surface in R^n is the integral of its squared mean curvature, and is invariant uner Möbius transformations of R^n. We show that any torus in R^3 with energy at most $8 π-delta$ has a representative under the Möbius action, for which the induced metric and a conformal metric of constant (zero) curvature are uniformly equivalent, with constants depending only on $delta>0$. An analogous estimate is also obtained for surfaces of fixed genus $p \geq 1$ in R^3 or R^4, assuming suitable energy bounds which are sharp for n=3. Moreover the conformal type is controlled in terms of the energy bounds.

math.DG↗