On the invariant surface area functionals in 3-dimensional CR geometry

Abstract

Cheng, Yang, and Zhang have studied two invariant surface area functionals in 3-dimensional CR manifolds. They deduced the Euler-Lagrange equations of the associated energy functionals when the 3-dimensional CR manifold has constant Webster curvature and vanishing torsion. In this paper, we deduce the Euler-Lagrange equations of the energy functionals in a more general 3-dimensional CR manifold. Moreover, we study the invariant area functionals on the disk bundle, on the Rossi sphere, and on 3-dimensional tori.

The second variation of the Clifford torus in the Rossi sphere is added. Some typos are corrected. To appear in Advances in Mathematics