Young Ho Kim

In 1991, B. -Y. Chen proposed a conjecture which is the relationship between bi-harmonic submanifolds and harmonic submanifolds in Euclidean space and quite a few related studies have supported it. Around the same time, it was proved that Chen’s conjecture does not extend to submanifolds in Minkowski space. In this paper, as part of these researches, we investigate bi-harmonic marginally trapped ruled surfaces in Minkowski m-space and then construct some examples about them in which Chen’s conjecture does not hold.

The linear Weingarten condition with ellipticity for the mean curvature and the extrinsic Gaussian curvature on a surface in the three-sphere can define a Riemannian metric which is called the elliptic linear Weingarten metric. We established some local characterizations of the round spheres and the tori immersed in the 3-dimensional unit sphere, along with the Laplace operator, the spherical Gauss map and the Gauss map associated with the elliptic linear Weingarten metric.

Based on the fundamental theories of null curves in Minkowski 3-space, the null Darboux mate curves of a null curve are defined which can be regarded as a kind of extension for Bertrand curves and Mannheim curves in Minkowski 3-space. The relationships of null Darboux curve pairs are explored and their expression forms are presented explicitly.

The Laplace operator on a Riemannian manifold plays an important role with eigenvalue problems and the spectral theory. Extending such an eigenvalue problem of smooth maps including the Gauss map, the notion of finite-type was introduced. The simplest finite-type is of 1-type. In particular, the spherical Gauss map is defined in a very natural way on spherical submanifolds. In this paper, we study ruled surfaces of the 3-dimensional sphere with generalized 1-type spherical Gauss map which generalizes the notion of 1-type. The classification theorem of ruled surfaces of the sphere with the spherical Gauss map of generalized 1-type is completed.

In the present work, the notion of generalized Cheng–Yau 1-type Gauss map is proposed, which is similar to the idea of generalized 1-type Gauss maps. Based on this concept, the surfaces of revolution and the canal surfaces in the Euclidean three-space are classified. First of all, we show that the Gauss map of any surfaces of revolution with a unit speed profile curve is of generalized Cheng–Yau 1-type. At the same time, an oriented canal surface has a generalized Cheng–Yau 1-type Gauss map if, and only if, it is an open part of a surface of revolution or a torus.