Related papers: Willmore surfaces in spheres via loop groups $I$: …

In the past decades, the authors made some systematic research on global and local properties of Willmore surfaces in terms of the DPW method. In this note we give a survey, mainly including the basic framework of the DPW method for the…

The paper builds a DPW approach of Willmore surfaces via conformal Gauss maps. As applications, we provide descriptions of minimal surfaces in $\mathbb R^{n+2}$, isotropic surfaces in $S^4$ and homogeneous Willmore tori via the loop group…

In this paper we provide a systematic discussion of how to incorporate orientation preserving symmetries into the treatment of Willmore surfaces via the loop group method. In this context we first develop a general treatment of Willmore…

Totally isotropic surfaces in $S^6$ are not necessarily Willmore surfaces. Therefore it is the first goal of this paper to derive a geometric characterization of totally isotropic Willmore two-spheres in $S^6$. This will naturally yield to…

Applying the DPW version of the theory developed by Burstall and Guest for harmonic maps of finite uniton type, we derive a coarse classification of Willmore two-spheres in $S^{n+2}$ in terms of the normalized potential of their (harmonic)…

A Willmore surface $y:M\rightarrow S^{n+2}$ has a natural harmonic oriented conformal Gauss map $Gr_y:M\rightarrow SO^{+}(1,n+3)/SO(1,3)\times SO(n)$, which maps each point $p\in M$ to its oriented mean curvature 2-sphere at $p$. An easy…

This paper aims to provide a description of totally isotropic Willmore two-spheres and their adjoint transforms. We first recall the isotropic harmonic maps which are introduced by H\'elein, Xia-Shen and Ma for the study of Willmore…

In this paper, we develop a loop group description of harmonic maps $\mathcal{F}: M \rightarrow G/K$ ``of finite uniton type", from a Riemann surface $M$ into inner symmetric spaces of compact or non-compact type. This develops work of…

We characterise the maps into the space of $2$-spheres in $S^n$ that are the conformal Gauss maps of conformal immersions of a surface. In particular, we give an invariant formulation and efficient proof of a characterisation, due to…

The family of Willmore immersions from a Riemann surface into $S^{n+2}$ can be divided naturally into the subfamily of Willmore surfaces conformally equivalent to a minimal surface in $\R^{n+2}$ and those which are not conformally…

In this paper, we develop a loop group description of harmonic maps $\mathcal{F}: M \rightarrow G/K$ of finite uniton number, from a Riemann surface $M,$ compact or non-compact, into inner symmetric spaces of compact or non-compact type. As…

Let $G$ be a complex Lie group and $\Lambda G$ denote the group of maps from the unit circle ${\mathbb S}^1$ into $G$, of a suitable class. A differentiable map $F$ from a manifold $M$ into $\Lambda G$, is said to be of \emph{connection…

In this paper we provide a systematic treatment of Willmore surfaces with orientation reversing symmetries and illustrate the theory by (old and new) examples. We apply our theory to isotropic Willmore two-spheres in $S^4$ and derive a…

We study two aspects of the loop group formulation for isometric immersions with flat normal bundle of space forms. The first aspect is to examine the loop group maps along different ranges of the loop parameter. This leads to various…

In this note we demonstrate how the analogy between the harmonic Gauss map of a constant mean curvature surface and the harmonic conformal Gauss map of a Willmore surface can be used to obtain results on Willmore surfaces.

We relate the existence problem of harmonic maps into $S^2$ to the convex geometry of $S^2$. On one hand, this allows us to construct new examples of harmonic maps of degree 0 from compact surfaces of arbitrary genus into $S^2$. On the…

In this note we consider homogeneous Willmore surfaces in $S^{n+2}$. The main result is that a homogeneous Willmore two-sphere is conformally equivalent to a homogeneous minimal two-sphere in $S^{n+2}$, i.e., either a round two-sphere or…

We study the umbilic points of Willmore surfaces in codimension 1 from the viewpoint of the conformal Gauss map. We first study the local behaviour of the conformal Gauss map near umbilic curves and prove that they are geodesics up to a…

The paper is devoted to the variational analysis of the Willmore, and other L^2 curvature functionals, among immersions of 2-dimensional surfaces into a compact riemannian m-manifold (M^m,h) with m>2. The goal of the paper is twofold, on…

After the surface theory of M\"obius geometry, this study concerns a pair of conformally immersed surfaces in $n$-sphere. Two new invariants $\theta$ and $\rho$ associated with them are introduced as well as the notion of touch and…