English

Minimal surfaces over the Pitot quadrilaterals

Differential Geometry 2025-12-02 v1 Complex Variables

Abstract

We develop a fully explicit framework for constructing Scherk-type minimal graphs over the Pitot quadrilaterals (i.e. such that the two pairs of opposite sides have the same total length). For any Pitot quadrilateral QQ, we first produce a harmonic diffeomorphism of the unit disk onto QQ, whose dilatation is the square of a M\"obius automorphism determined directly by the vertices of QQ. Using this map as the Weierstrass data, we obtain a minimal graph Σ\Sigma whose Gauss map is a univalent M\"obius transformation and whose height function exhibits alternating blow-up behavior along opposite sides of QQ, mirroring the classical Scherk surfaces. We further construct an associated canonical surface Σ\Sigma^\diamond, with the same boundary asymptotics, and prove a sharp curvature comparison theorem: at the harmonic center of QQ, among all bounded minimal graphs with matching normal direction and mixed derivative, Σ\Sigma^\diamond uniquely maximizes the absolute Gaussian curvature. This provides a complete and constructive description of Scherk-type minimal graphs over all, both convex or concave, Pitot quadrilaterals.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2512.01029,
  title  = {Minimal surfaces over the Pitot quadrilaterals},
  author = {Vladimir Dragović and David Kalaj},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.01029},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

17 pages

R2 v1 2026-07-01T08:02:35.186Z