Fraser–Li conjecture on the critical catenoid

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Let B3⊂R3B^3\subset\mathbb{R}^3 be the unit ball, and let Σcc\Sigma_{\mathrm{cc}} denote the critical catenoid, the free boundary minimal annulus obtained by scaling the Euclidean catenoid to meet ∂B3\partial B^3 orthogonally. Fraser–Li conjecture. Up to ambient congruence, the critical catenoid is the unique properly embedded free boundary minimal annulus in B3B^3. This is the free boundary analogue of Lawson-type uniqueness for the Clifford torus. The conjecture remains open in full generality.

References

Primary source

Niang Chen, “Rigidity and Gap Phenomena in the Sphere–Ball Correspondence”, arXiv:2603.13061 (2026).

Additional references

11 papers in this index state this conjecture (2016–2026). The statement above is taken from the most recent of them; the others are arXiv:2409.14718, arXiv:2301.01892, arXiv:2212.12528, arXiv:2108.00441, arXiv:2105.11264, arXiv:2011.06884, arXiv:2009.09625, arXiv:2007.03279, arXiv:2004.03320, arXiv:1603.04114.

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