Paper 3, Section II, I

Differential Geometry
Part II, 2011

For an oriented surface SS in R3\mathbb{R}^{3}, define the Gauss map, the second fundamental form and the normal curvature in the direction wTpSw \in T_{p} S at a point pSp \in S.

Let k~1,,k~m\tilde{k}_{1}, \ldots, \tilde{k}_{m} be normal curvatures at pp in the directions v1,,vmv_{1}, \ldots, v_{m}, such that the angle between viv_{i} and vi+1v_{i+1} is π/m\pi / m for each i=1,,m1(m2)i=1, \ldots, m-1(m \geqslant 2). Show that

k~1++k~m=mH\tilde{k}_{1}+\ldots+\tilde{k}_{m}=m H

where HH is the mean curvature of SS at pp.

What is a minimal surface? Show that if SS is a minimal surface, then its Gauss mapN\operatorname{map} N at each point pSp \in S satisfies

dNp(w1),dNp(w2)=μ(p)w1,w2, for all w1,w2TpS,\left\langle d N_{p}\left(w_{1}\right), d N_{p}\left(w_{2}\right)\right\rangle=\mu(p)\left\langle w_{1}, w_{2}\right\rangle, \quad \text { for all } w_{1}, w_{2} \in T_{p} S,

where μ(p)R\mu(p) \in \mathbb{R} depends only on pp. Conversely, if the identity ()(*) holds at each point in SS, must SS be minimal? Justify your answer.