This monograph offers the first systematic treatment of the theory of minimal surfaces in Euclidean spaces by complex analytic methods, many of which have been developed in recent decades as part of the theory of Oka manifolds (the h-principle in complex analysis). It places particular emphasis on the study of the global theory of minimal surfaces with a given complex structure. Advanced methods of holomorphic approximation, interpolation, and homotopy classification of manifold-valued maps, along with elements of convex integration theory, are implemented for the first time in the theory of minimal surfaces. The text also presents newly developed methods for constructing minimal surfaces in minimally convex domains of Rn, based on the Riemann-Hilbert boundary value problem adapted to minimal surfaces and holomorphic null curves. These methods also provide major advances in the classical Calabi-Yau problem, yielding in particular minimal surfaces with the conformal structure of any given bordered Riemann surface. Offering new directions in the field and several challenging open problems, the primary audience of the book are researchers (including postdocs and PhD students) in differential geometry and complex analysis. Although not primarily intended as a textbook, two introductory chapters surveying background material and the classical theory of minimal surfaces also make it suitable for preparing Masters or PhD level courses.

This monograph offers the first systematic treatment of the theory of minimal surfaces in Euclidean spaces by complex analytic methods, many of which have been developed in recent decades as part of the theory of Oka manifolds (the h-principle in complex analysis). It places particular emphasis on the study of the global theory of minimal surfaces with a given complex structure. Advanced methods of holomorphic approximation, interpolation, and homotopy classification of manifold-valued maps, along with elements of convex integration theory, are implemented for the first time in the theory of minimal surfaces. The text also presents newly developed methods for constructing minimal surfaces in minimally convex domains of Rn, based on the Riemann-Hilbert boundary value problem adapted to minimal surfaces and holomorphic null curves. These methods also provide major advances in the classical Calabi-Yau problem, yielding in particular minimal surfaces with the conformal structure of any given bordered Riemann surface. Offering new directions in the field and several challenging open problems, the primary audience of the book are researchers (including postdocs and PhD students) in differential geometry and complex analysis. Although not primarily intended as a textbook, two introductory chapters surveying background material and the classical theory of minimal surfaces also make it suitable for preparing Masters or PhD level courses.

The aim of this work is to adapt the complex analytic methods originating in modern Oka theory to the study of non-orientable conformal minimal surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^n$ for any $n\ge 3$. These methods, which the authors develop essentially from the first principles, enable them to prove that the space of conformal minimal immersions of a given bordered non-orientable surface to $\mathbb{R}^n$ is a real analytic Banach manifold, obtain approximation results of Runge-Mergelyan type for conformal minimal immersions from non-orientable surfaces, and show general position theorems for non-orientable conformal minimal surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^n$. The authors also give the first known example of a properly embedded non-orientable minimal surface in $\mathbb{R}^4$; a Mobius strip. All the new tools mentioned above apply to non-orientable minimal surfaces endowed with a fixed choice of a conformal structure. This enables the authors to obtain significant new applications to the global theory of non-orientable minimal surfaces. In particular, they construct proper non-orientable conformal minimal surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^n$ with any given conformal structure, complete non-orientable minimal surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^n$ with arbitrary conformal type whose generalized Gauss map is nondegenerate and omits $n$ hyperplanes of $\mathbb{CP}^{n-1}$ in general position, complete non-orientable minimal surfaces bounded by Jordan curves, and complete proper non-orientable minimal surfaces normalized by bordered surfaces in $p$-convex domains of $\mathbb{R}^n$.