Minimal Surface as a Convex Optimization Problem
Viewing the 3-D model on this page requires a VRML plugin such as
Cosmoplayer/2.1.
Given a domain in R2 and boundary data, the
minimal surface problem is to
find an interpolation of the boundary data into the interior of the domain so
that the surface so generated has minimal surface area. This problem is a
convex optimization problem. To see the AMPL file that was used to generate
the surface shown above, click here.
LOQO was used to compute the minimal surface shown above. To get a better feel
for the surface, set it in motion by dragging and releasing the globe.