The space of embedded minimal surfaces of fixed genus in a 3-manifold Ⅳ; Locally simply connected

摘要

This paper is the fourth in a series where we describe the space of all embedded minimal surfaces of fixed genus in a fixed (but arbitrary) closed 3-manifold. The key is to understand the structure of an embedded minimal disk in a ball in R~3. This was undertaken in [CM3], [CM4] and the global version of it will be completed here; see the discussion around Figure 12 for the local case and [CM15] for some more details. Our main results are Theorem 0.1 (the lamination theorem) and Theorem 0.2 (the one-sided curvature estimate). The lamination theorem is stated in the global case where the lamination is, in fact, a foliation. The first four papers of this series show that every embedded minimal disk is either a graph of a function or is a double spiral staircase where each staircase is a multivalued graph. This is done by showing that if the curvature is large at some point (and hence the surface is not a graph), then it is a double spiral staircase like the helicoid. To prove that such a disk is a double spiral staircase, we showed in the first three papers of the series that it is built out of N-valued graphs where N is a fixed number. In this paper we will deal with how the multi-valued graphs fit together and, in particular, prove regularity of the set of points of large curvature - the axis of the double spiral staircase.