The Classification of Branched Willmore Spheres in the 3-Sphere and the 4-Sphere

Abstract

We extend the classification of Robert Bryant of Willmore spheres in $S^3$ to variational branched Willmore spheres $S^3$ and show that they are inverse stereographic projections of complete minimal surfaces with finite total curvature in $\mathbb{R}^3$ and vanishing flux. We also obtain a classification of variational branched Willmore spheres in $S^4$, generalising a theorem of Sebastian Montiel. As a result of our asymptotic analysis at branch points, we obtain an improved $C^{1,1}$ regularity of the unit normal of variational branched Willmore surfaces in arbitrary codimension. We also prove that the width of Willmore sphere min-max procedures in dimension $3$ and $4$, such as the sphere eversion, is an integer multiple of $4\pi$.