Locally Isometric Families of Minimal Surfaces

Abstract

We consider a surface $M$ immersed in ${\mathbb{R}}^3$ with induced metric $g=\psi {\delta }_2$ where ${\delta }_2$ is the two dimensional Euclidean metric. We then construct a system of partial differential equations that constrain $M$ to lift to a minimal surface via the Weierstrauss-Enneper representation demanding the metric is of the above form. It is concluded that the associated surfaces connecting the prescribed minimal surface and its conjugate surface satisfy the system. Moreover, we find a non-trivial symmetry of the PDE which generates a one parameter family of surfaces isometric to a specified minimal surface. We demonstrate an instance of the analysis for the helicoid and catenoid.

7 pages, 2 figures