Existence of 5 minimal tori in 3-spheres of positive Ricci curvature

Abstract

In 1989, B. White conjectured that every Riemannian 3-sphere has at least 5 embedded minimal tori. We confirm this conjecture for 3-spheres of positive Ricci curvature. While our proof uses min-max theory, the underlying heuristics are largely inspired by mean curvature flow.

v2: Minor revisions, revised section 8.1