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Conformally Invariant Variational Problems. - SAM

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III Elementary Differential geometry of surfaces.<br />

IV Some fundamental results in functional<br />

analysis.<br />

IV.1 Weak L p -Spaces, Lorentz Spaces and improved<br />

Sobolev Embeddings.<br />

V The parametric Plateau problem.<br />

V.1 Introduction to the parametric Plateau problem.<br />

The first historical instance in which calculus of variations encountered<br />

conformalinvariancetookplace early in the twentieth<br />

century with the resolution of the Plateau problem. Originally<br />

posed by J.-L. Lagrange in 1760, it was solved independently<br />

over 150 years later by J. Douglas and T. Radó. In recognition<br />

of his work, the former was bestowed the first Fields Medal in<br />

1936 (jointly with L. Alhfors).<br />

Plateau Problem. Given a jordan curve Γ in R m , that is an<br />

injective continuous image of S 1 , does there exist an immersion<br />

u of the unit-disk D 2 such that ∂D 2 is homeomorphically sent<br />

onto Γ by u and for which u(D 2 ) has a minimal area in the class<br />

of such immersions ?<br />

The most natural approach for solving the Plateau problem<br />

would be to consider the direct minimization of the area functional<br />

of C 1 immersionsu from the disc D 2 into R m , sending it’s<br />

boundary homeomorphically into Γ, and given explicitly by<br />

∫<br />

A(u) = |∂ x u∧∂ y u| dx∧dy .<br />

D 2<br />

where, for any pair of vector a and b in R m , a ∧ b denotes the<br />

17

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