Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2011 / ii / Paper 3 / 24I / Solution

The Gauss map of an oriented surface is its smooth unit normal $N:S\to S^2$. With the convention that the shape operator is $A_p=-d{N}_p$, the second fundamental form is ${\mathrm{II}}_p(v,w)=⟨A_{p}v,w⟩$ and the normal curvature in a nonzero direction $w$ is $k_n(w)=\mathrm{II}(w,w)/⟨w,w⟩$. The two principal curvatures are the real eigenvalues $k_1,k_2$ of this self-adjoint operator; the mean curvature is $H=(k_1+k_2)/2$.

For directions successively spaced around the tangent plane, write their angles to a principal direction as ${\theta }_j={\theta }_0+(j-1)\pi /m$. The Euler formula for normal curvature givesThe geometric series ${\sum }_{j=0}^{m-1}{e}^{2\pi ij/m}=0$ for $m\ge 2$ makes the cosine sum zero. ThereforeHere equal angular spacing is understood in the usual directed sense. If the printed consecutive angles were only unsigned, without requiring the same rotational sense, the assertion would be false: for $m=3$ the directions $0,\pi /3,0$ satisfy those unsigned angle conditions but do not generally give $3H$.

A minimal surface has $H=0$, so at each point $k_2=-k_1$. In an orthonormal principal basis, $A=\mathrm{diag}(k_1,-k_1)$ and $A^2=k_1^{2}I$. Hencewhich proves the identity with $\boxed{\mu (p)=k_1^2=-K(p)\ge 0}$, where $K$ is the Gaussian curvature.

The converse is false. The identity only forces $k_1^2=k_2^2$, which allows either $k_2=-k_1$ or $k_2=k_1$. A sphere of radius $R$ has $dN=I/R$ for its outward normal, so it satisfies the identity with $\mu =R^{-2}$, yet $H=-1/R\ne 0$ under the chosen convention. Thus a conformal Gauss map can also arise from an umbilic nonminimal surface.