Triply periodic

minimal surface

In differential geometry, a triply periodic

minimal surface (TPMS) is a minimal
surface in ℝ3 that is invariant under a rank-
3 lattice of translations.
Schwarz H surface

These surfaces have the symmetries of a

crystallographic group. Numerous
examples are known with cubic,
tetragonal, rhombohedral, and
orthorhombic symmetries. Monoclinic and
triclinic examples are certain to exist, but
have proven hard to parametrise.[1]

TPMS are of relevance in natural science.

TPMS have been observed as biological
membranes,[2] as block copolymers,[3]
equipotential surfaces in crystals[4] etc.
They have also been of interest in
architecture, design and art.
Properties
Nearly all studied TPMS are free of self-
intersections (i.e. embedded in ℝ3): from a
mathematical standpoint they are the
most interesting (since self-intersecting
surfaces are trivially abundant).[5]

All connected TPMS have genus ≥ 3,[6] and

in every lattice there exist orientable
embedded TPMS of every genus ≥3.[7]

Embedded TPMS are orientable and divide

space into two disjoint sub-volumes
(labyrinths). If they are congruent the
surface is said to be a balance surface.[8]
History

Schwarz P surface

The first examples of TPMS were the

surfaces described by Schwarz in 1865,
followed by a surface described by his
student E. R. Neovius in 1883.[9][10]

In 1970 Alan Schoen came up with 12 new

TPMS based on skeleton graphs spanning
crystallographic cells.[11][12] While
Schoen's surfaces became popular in
natural science the construction did not
lend itself to a mathematical existence
proof and remained largely unknown in
mathematics, until H. Karcher proved their
existence in 1989.[13]

Using conjugate surfaces many more

surfaces were found. While Weierstrass
representations are known for the simpler
examples, they are not known for many
surfaces. Instead methods from Discrete
differential geometry are often used.[5]
Families
The classification of TPMS is an open
problem.

TPMS often come in families that can be

continuously deformed into each other.
Meeks found an explicit 5-parameter
family for genus 3 TPMS that contained all
then known examples of genus 3 surfaces
except the gyroid.[6] Members of this
family can be continuously deformed into
each other, remaining embedded in the
process (although the lattice may change).
The gyroid and lidinoid are each inside a
separate 1-parameter family.[14]
Another approach to classifying TPMS is
to examine their space groups. For
surfaces containing lines the possible
boundary polygons can be enumerated,
providing a classification.[8][15]

Generalisations
Periodic minimal surfaces can be
constructed in S3[16] and H3.[17]

It is possible to generalise the division of

space into labyrinths to find triply periodic
(but possibly branched) minimal surfaces
that divide space into more than two sub-
volumes.[18]
Quasiperiodic minimal surfaces have been
constructed in ℝ2×S1.[19] It has been
suggested but not been proven that
minimal surfaces with a quasicrystalline
order in ℝ3 exist.[20]

External galleries of images

TPMS at the Minimal Surface Archive [2]
(https://minimal.sitehost.iu.edu/archive/
Triply/index.html)
Periodic minimal surfaces gallery [3] (htt
p://www-klinowski.ch.cam.ac.uk/pmsga
l1.html)

References
1. "Mathematics of the EPINET Project" (htt
 p://epinet.anu.edu.au/mathematics/minim
al_surfaces) .

2. Deng, Yuru; Mieczkowski, Mark (1998).

"Three-dimensional periodic cubic
membrane structure in the mitochondria of
amoebae Chaos carolinensis".
Protoplasma. Springer Science and
Business Media LLC. 203 (1–2): 16–25.
doi:10.1007/bf01280583 (https://doi.org/1
0.1007%2Fbf01280583) . ISSN 0033-183X
(https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0033-183
X) . S2CID 25569139 (https://api.semantic
scholar.org/CorpusID:25569139) .
3. Jiang, Shimei; Göpfert, Astrid; Abetz, Volker
(2003). "Novel Morphologies of Block
Copolymer Blends via Hydrogen Bonding".
Macromolecules. American Chemical
Society (ACS). 36 (16): 6171–6177.
Bibcode:2003MaMol..36.6171J (https://ui.a
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71J) . doi:10.1021/ma0342933 (https://do
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9297 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0024-
9297) .
4. Mackay, Alan L. (1985). "Periodic minimal
surfaces". Physica B+C. Elsevier BV. 131
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Bibcode:1985PhyBC.131..300M (https://ui.
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S2CID 4267918 (https://api.semanticschola
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5. Karcher, Hermann; Polthier, Konrad (1996-
09-16). "Construction of triply periodic
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o/articles/triply/triply_withoutApp.pdf)
(PDF). Philosophical Transactions of the
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077K) . doi:10.1098/rsta.1996.0093 (http
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6. William H. Meeks, III. The Geometry and the

Conformal Structure of Triply Periodic
Minimal Surfaces in R3. PhD thesis,
University of California, Berkeley, 1975.

7. Traizet, M. (2008). "On the genus of triply

periodic minimal surfaces" (http://www.lmp
t.univ-tours.fr/~traizet/triply.pdf) (PDF).
Journal of Differential Geometry.
International Press of Boston. 79 (2): 243–
275. doi:10.4310/jdg/1211512641 (https://
doi.org/10.4310%2Fjdg%2F1211512641) .
ISSN 0022-040X (https://www.worldcat.or
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 8. "Without self-intersections" (https://web.arc
hive.org/web/20070222230616/http://staff
-www.uni-marburg.de/~fischerw/nonself/n
onsi.htm) . Archived from the original (htt
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onself/nonsi.htm) on 2007-02-22.

9. H. A. Schwarz, Gesammelte
Mathematische Abhandlungen, Springer,
Berlin, 1933.

10. E. R. Neovius, "Bestimmung zweier

spezieller periodischer Minimal Flachen",
Akad. Abhandlungen, Helsingfors, 1883.
11. Alan H. Schoen, Infinite periodic minimal
surfaces without self-intersections, NASA
Technical Note TN D-5541 (1970)"Infinite
periodic minimal surfaces without self-
intersections by Alan H. Schoen" (https://sc
hoengeometry.com/e-tpms-media/197000
20472_1970020472%5b1%5d.pdf) (PDF).
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/201
80413003718/http://schoengeometry.com/
e-tpms-media/19700020472_197002047
2%5b1%5d.pdf) (PDF) from the original on
2018-04-13. Retrieved 2019-04-12.
12. "Triply-periodic minimal surfaces by Alan H.
Schoen" (https://schoengeometry.com/e-tp
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13. Karcher, Hermann (1989-03-05). "The triply

periodic minimal surfaces of Alan Schoen
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64 (3): 291–357. doi:10.1007/BF01165824
(https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF01165824) .
S2CID 119894224 (https://api.semanticsch
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14. Adam G. Weyhaupt. New families of
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of genus three in euclidean space. PhD
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15. Fischer, W.; Koch, E. (1996-09-16).
"Spanning minimal surfaces". Philosophical
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16. Karcher, H.; Pinkall, U.; Sterling, I. (1988).
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18. Góźdź, Wojciech T.; Hołyst, Robert (1996-
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19. Laurent Mazet, Martin Traizet, A quasi-

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[1] (https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0609489)
 20. Sheng, Qing; Elser, Veit (1994-04-01).
"Quasicrystalline minimal surfaces".
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