 Negative area direction at an extended catenoid

A catenoid has zero mean curvature, but need not minimize area for its fixed boundary rings. For the profile $y(x)=\cosh x$ on $[-2,2]$, take an endpoint-zero variation $\eta (x)=\cosh x-\cosh 2$. The second variation of the rotational area isTo derive the integral, differentiate $y\sqrt{1+y^{\prime 2}}$ twice, then integrate its mixed term by parts; the endpoint term vanishes. To evaluate it, substitute ${\eta }^{\prime 2}-{\eta }^2=-1-C^2+2C\cosh x$, using the antiderivatives of $\mathrm{sech}x$ and ${\mathrm{sech}}^{2}x$. The result is negative because $\arctan (\sinh 2)<\pi /2$ and $(C+C^{-1})\tanh 2>\pi$.

Small positive and negative perturbations remain positive and preserve the boundary values. The first variation vanishes, while the negative second variation gives nearby smaller areas. Thus being a minimal surface in the zero-mean-curvature sense is a stationarity condition, not a guarantee of area minimization for arbitrary boundary separations.