The Harmonic Mapping Whose Hopf Differential Is a Constant

Suppose that h(z) is a harmonic mapping from the unit disk D to itself with respect to the hyperbolic metric. If the Hopf differential of h(z) is a constant c>0, the Beltrami coefficient μ(z) of h(z) is radially symmetric and takes the maximum at z=0. Furthermore, the mapping γ:c→μ(0) is increasing and gives a homeomorphism from (0,+∞) to (0,1).

Harmonic maps and wild Teichmüller spaces

We use meromorphic quadratic differentials with higher order poles to parametrize the Teichmüller space of crowned hyperbolic surfaces. Such a surface is obtained on uniformizing a compact Riemann surface with marked points on its boundary components, and has noncompact ends with boundary cusps. This extends Wolf’s parametrization of the Teichmüller space of a closed surface using holomorphic quadratic differentials. Our proof involves showing the existence of a harmonic map from a punctured Riemann surface to a crowned hyperbolic surface, with prescribed principal parts of its Hopf differential which determine the geometry of the map near the punctures.

Applications of Quaternionic Holomorphic Geometry to minimal surfaces

In this paper we give a survey of methods of Quaternionic Holomorphic Geometry and of applications of the theory to minimal surfaces. We discuss recent developments in minimal surface theory using integrable systems. In particular, we give the Lopez–Ros deformation and the simple factor dressing in terms of the Gauss map and the Hopf differential of the minimal surface. We illustrate the results for well–known examples of minimal surfaces, namely the Riemann minimal surfaces and the Costa surface.

How many maximal surfaces do correspond to one minimal surface?

We discuss the minimal-to-maximal correspondence between surfaces and show that, under this correspondence, a congruence class of minimal surfaces in 3 determines an 2-family of congruence classes of maximal surfaces in 3. It is proved that further identifications among these classes may exist, depending upon the subgroup of automorphisms preserving the Hopf differential on the underlying Riemann surface. The space of maximal congruence classes inherits a quotient topology from 2. In the case of the Scherk minimal surface, the subgroup has order two and the quotient space is topologically a disc with boundary. Other classical examples are discussed: for the Enneper minimal surface, one obtains a non-Hausdorff space; for the minimal catenoid, a closed interval.