Asymptotics of Willmore Minimizers with Prescribed Small Isoperimetric Ratio

We consider surfaces in ${\mathbb R}^3$ of type ${\mathbb S}^2$ which minimize the Willmore functional with prescribed isoperimetric ratio. The existence of smooth minimizers was proved by Schygulla (Archive Rational Mechanics and Analysis, 2012). In the singular limit when the isoperimetric ratio converges to zero, he showed convergence to a double round sphere in the sense of varifolds. Here we give a full blowup analysis of this limit, showing that the two spheres are connected by a catenoidal neck. Besides its geometric interest, the problem was studied as a simplified model in the theory of cell membranes, see e.g. Berndl, Lipowsky, Seifert (Physical Review A, 1991).

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