Index Estimates for Surfaces with Constant Mean Curvature in $3$-dimensional Manifolds

Abstract

We prove index estimates for closed and free boundary CMC surfaces in certain $3$-dimensional submanifolds of some Euclidean space. When the mean curvature is large enough we are able to prove that the index of a CMC surface in an arbitrary $3$-manifold is bounded below by a linear function of its genus.

19 pages, minor corrections and further applications