English

Separable surfaces that are critical points of the Dirichlet energy

Differential Geometry 2026-05-14 v1

Abstract

In this paper, we study surfaces z=φ(x,y)z=\varphi(x,y) in Euclidean space that satisfy the equation φxx+φyy=Λ2\varphi_{xx}+\varphi_{yy}=\frac{\Lambda}{2} where \Lambda\in\r is a real constant. We classify these surfaces when they are the zero level sets of an implicit equation of the type f(x)+g(y)+h(z)=0f(x)+g(y)+h(z)=0, where ff, gg and hh are smooth functions of one variable. If Λ=0\Lambda=0, we find a large family of surfaces with interesting symmetry properties. However, if Λ0\Lambda\not=0, we show that the surfaces must be either surfaces of revolution or of the type z=f(x)+g(y)z=f(x)+g(y); furthermore, explicit parametrizations of these surfaces are obtained.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2605.13033,
  title  = {Separable surfaces that are critical points of the Dirichlet energy},
  author = {Rafael López},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.13033},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

18 pages, 6 figures