What is... a Willmore surface?

Vortrag von Alexis Michelat

Datum: 24.10.17  Zeit: 17.15 - 18.30  Raum:

The theory of Willmore surfaces was developed by Germain, Lagrange and Poisson in the early 19th century as an attempt to generalise Euler’s 1744 theory of elastic curves, the so-called elastica, to surfaces. Since 1965, when they were reintroduced by Willmore, these surfaces have appeared in several contexts: to name a few, minimal surface theory, general relativity and cellular biology. In this talk, we shall discuss some aspects of Willmore surfaces, including the PDE analysis and Bryant’s genus 0 classification theory, and introduce some challenging open problems. If time permits, we will discuss recent developments in collaboration with Tristan Rivière.