Global Theory Of Minimal Surfaces

A minimal surface, which according to Hoffman (Mathematical Sciences Research Institute) is a surface whose mean curvature is everywhere zero, has the defining property that every sufficiently small piece of it is the surface of least area among all surfaces with the same boundary. Here he presents 37 papers presented at "the most extensive meeting ever held on the subject" at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. Among the topics covered are computational aspects of discrete minimal surfaces, conjugate plateau constructions, parabolicity and minimal surfaces, the isoperimetric problem, the genus-one helicoids as a limit of screw-motion invariant helicoids with handles, isoperimetric inequalities of minimal submanifolds, embedded minimal disks, minimial surfaces of finite topology, conformal structures and necksizes of embedded constant mean curvature surfaces, and variational problems in Lagrangian geometry. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)