Morse Index of Willmore spheres in $S^3$

Abstract

We obtain an upper bound for the Morse index of Willmore spheres $\Sigma\subset S^3$ coming from an immersion of $S^2$. The quantization of Willmore energy shows that there exists an integer $m$ such that $\mathscr{W}(\Sigma)=4\pi m$. Then we show that $\mathrm{Ind}_{\mathscr{W}}(\Sigma)\leq m$. The proof relies on an explicit computation relating the second derivative of $\mathscr{W}$ for $\Sigma$ with the Jacobi operator of the minimal surface in $\mathbb{R}^3$ it is the image of by stereographic projection thanks of the fundamental classification of Robert Bryant.