Showing posts with label minimal surface. Show all posts
Showing posts with label minimal surface. Show all posts

Saturday, 22 April 2017

Comparison of curves by curvatures (III)

By the theorem of the previous entry, we prove:
Theorem. Any compact surface has points with positive Gauss curvature.
Proof. Take $p_0\in S$ the fairest point of $S$ from the origin of ${\mathbb R}^3$: this point exists because $S$ is compact and the distance function to a fixed point is a continuous function. We do the next steps.

Take ${\mathbb S}^2(r)$ the sphere centered at the origin and radius $r=|p_0|$: this number is positive because on the contrary is only one point. 

The surfaces $S$ and ${\mathbb S}^2(r)$ are tangent at $p_0$. For ${\mathbb S}^2(r)$ we know that the tangent plane is orthogonal to the position vector $p_0$. For $S$, consider the function $f(p)=|p|^2$. Because $p_0$ is a maximum, it is a critical point, so $df_{p_0}=0$. But it is is immediate that $df_{p_0}(v)=2\langle p_0,v\rangle$ for any $v\in T_{p_0}S$. Thus $T_{p_0}S$ is orthogonal to $p_0$. 

We orient ${\mathbb S}^2(r)$ according the orientation pointing inside, so the normal curvature for any tangent vector is $1/r$. Consider the orientation on $S$ so $N(p_0)=-p_0/|p_0|$, that is, the same than ${\mathbb S}^2(r)$. Moreover, $S$ lies above ${\mathbb S}^2(r)$ around $p_0$.


By the Theorem in the previous day, $\kappa_n(v)\geq 1/r$, in particular, in along the principal directions, $\kappa_i(p_0)\geq 1/r$, so $K(p_0)\geq 1/r^2$.

In particular, we have an estimate of the Gauss curvature at the fairest point  $p_0$ from the origin: $$K(p_0)\geq\frac{1}{|p_0|^2}.$$

As a consequence of the inequality $H^2\geq K$, we have:

Corollary. There are no compact minimal surfaces.