A dichotomy for minimal hypersurfaces in manifolds thick at infinity

Abstract

Let $(M,g)$ be a complete $(n+1)$-dimensional Riemannian manifold with $2\le n\le 6$. Our main theorem generalizes the solution of S.-T. Yau's conjecture on the abundance of minimal surfaces and builds on a result of M. Gromov. Suppose that $(M,g)$ has bounded geometry, or more generally is thick at infinity. Then the following dichotomy holds for the space of closed hypersurfaces in $M$: either there are infinitely many saddle points of the $n$-volume functional, or there is none. Additionally, we give a new short proof of the existence of a finite volume minimal hypersurface in finite volume manifolds, we check Yau's conjecture for finite volume hyperbolic 3-manifolds and we extend the density result due to Irie-Marques-Neves when $(M,g)$ is shrinking to zero at infinity.

v2: Correction added, presentation improved, to appear in Ann. Sci. Ec. Norm. Supér

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Cited by in corpus (5)

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