Delaunay surfaces with free boundary on the unit $2$-sphere

Abstract

We characterize all symmetric, embedded surfaces of revolution with constant mean curvature that meet the unit sphere orthogonally. It is well known that there exists a unique free boundary catenoid inside of the unit ball. By analogy, we prove the existence of a unique free boundary nodoid inside of the unit ball with constant mean curvature equal to $-1$. Moreover, there exists a unique compact free boundary nodoid \emph{outside} of the unit ball with constant mean curvature equal to $-1$. However, there exists no symmetric surface of revolution with constant mean curvature $1$ that meets the unit sphere orthogonally.

24 pages, 7 figures. Comments are welcome!