The isoperimetric inequality for minimal surfaces in a Riemannian manifold

Abstract

Abstract It is proved that every minimal surface with one or two boundary components in a simply connected Riemannian manifold with sectional curvature bounded above by a nonpositive constant K satisfies the sharp isoperimetric inequality 4π A ≦ L2 + K A2. Here equality holds if and only if the minimal surface is a geodesic disk in a surface of constant Gaussian curvature K.