A new eigenvalue problem for free boundary minimal submanifolds in the unit ball

The purpose of the present paper is to show that the components of the unit normal of any minimal surface with free boundary in the unit ball, are eigenfunctions associated with the eigenvalue $-2$, for some (new) natural eigenvalue problem for the Jacobi operator; this fact has analytic (spectral) consequences for free boundary minimal surfaces in the unit $3$-ball of index $4$, and might prove useful in order to characterize these. This is also in strong analogy with the case of minimal surfaces in $S^3$.