English

A martingale approach to minimal surfaces

Differential Geometry 2011-01-20 v2 Probability

Abstract

We provide a probabilistic approach to studying minimal surfaces in three-dimensional Euclidean space. Following a discussion of the basic relationship between Brownian motion on a surface and minimality of the surface, we introduce a way of coupling Brownian motions on two minimal surfaces. This coupling is then used to study two classes of results in the theory of minimal surfaces, maximum principle-type results, such as weak and strong halfspace theorems and the maximum principle at infinity, and Liouville theorems.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0805.0556,
  title  = {A martingale approach to minimal surfaces},
  author = {Robert W. Neel},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0805.0556},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

33 pages, exposition in Section 3 re-worked, minor corrections, one reference added

R2 v1 2026-06-21T10:37:28.936Z