21.06.2014 Views

Conformally Invariant Variational Problems. - SAM

Conformally Invariant Variational Problems. - SAM

Conformally Invariant Variational Problems. - SAM

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

A straightforwardbut importantconsequence of theoremX.7<br />

is the following conservative form of Willmore surfaces equations.<br />

Corollary X.3. An immersion Φ ⃗ of a 2-dimensional manifold<br />

Σ 2 is Willmore if and only if the 1-form given by<br />

∗ g<br />

[dH ⃗ −3π ⃗n (dH)+⋆(∗ ⃗ g d⃗n∧ H) ⃗ ]<br />

is closed.<br />

✷<br />

The analysis questions for Willmore immersions we raised in<br />

the previous subsection can be studied basically from two point<br />

of views<br />

i) By working with the maps ⃗ Φ themseves.<br />

ii) By workingwiththe immersedsurface: theimage ⃗ Φ(Σ 2 ) ⊂<br />

R m .<br />

The drawback of the first approach is the huge invariance group<br />

of the problem containing the positive diffeomorphism group of<br />

Σ 2 . The drawback of the second approach comes from the fact<br />

that the Euler Lagrange equation is defined on an unknown object<br />

⃗ Φ(Σ 2 ). In thiscourse we shalltake the first approachbut by<br />

trying to ”break” as much as we can the symmetry invariance<br />

given by the action of positive diffeomorphisms of Σ 2 . From<br />

Gauge theory and in particular from Yang-Mills theory a natural<br />

way to ”break” a symmetry group is to look for Coulomb<br />

gauges. As we will explain the concept of Coulomb gauge transposed<br />

to the present setting of immersions of 2-dimensional<br />

manifolds is given by the Isothermal coordinates (or conformal<br />

parametrization). We shall make an intensive use of these conformal<br />

parametrization and therefore we shall make an intensive<br />

use of the conservative form of Willmore surfaces equation<br />

142

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!