English

Helfrich's Energy and Constrained Minimisation

Differential Geometry 2016-08-10 v1

Abstract

For every gN0g\in\mathbb{N}_0 and ϵ>0\epsilon>0, we construct a smooth genus gg surface embedded into the unit ball with area 8π8\pi and Willmore energy smaller than 8π+ϵ8\pi + \epsilon. From this we deduce that a minimising sequence for Willmore's energy in the class of genus gg surfaces embedded in the unit ball with area 8π8\pi converges to a doubly covered sphere for all gN0g\in\mathbb{N}_0. We obtain the same result for certain Canham-Helfrich energies with χK0\chi_K\leq 0 without genus constraint and show that Canham-Helfrich energies with χK>0\chi_K>0 are not bounded from below in the class of smooth surfaces with area SS embedded into a domain ΩR3\Omega\Subset \mathbb{R}^3. Furthermore, we prove that the class of connected surfaces embedded in a domain ΩR3\Omega\Subset\mathbb{R}^3 with uniformly bounded Willmore energy and area is compact under varifold convergence.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1608.02823,
  title  = {Helfrich's Energy and Constrained Minimisation},
  author = {Stephan Wojtowytsch},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1608.02823},
  year   = {2016}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T15:15:57.250Z