English

Stacking disorder in periodic minimal surfaces

Differential Geometry 2021-02-08 v3 Soft Condensed Matter Complex Variables

Abstract

We construct 1-parameter families of non-periodic embedded minimal surfaces of infinite genus in T×RT \times \mathbb{R}, where TT denotes a flat 2-tori. Each of our families converges to a foliation of T×RT \times \mathbb{R} by TT. These surfaces then lift to minimal surfaces in R3\mathbb{R}^3 that are periodic in horizontal directions but not periodic in the vertical direction. In the language of crystallography, our construction can be interpreted as disordered stacking of layers of periodically arranged catenoid necks. Our work is motivated by experimental observations of twinning defects in periodic minimal surfaces, which we reproduce as special cases of stacking disorder.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1908.06276,
  title  = {Stacking disorder in periodic minimal surfaces},
  author = {Hao Chen and Martin Traizet},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1908.06276},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

33 pages, 1 figure. Minor improvements for final publication

R2 v1 2026-06-23T10:49:45.653Z