Annular solutions to the partitioning problem in a ball

Abstract

For any $n\in \mathbb{N}$, $n\geq 2$, we construct a real analytic, one-parameter family of compact embedded CMC annuli with free boundary in the unit ball $\mathbb{B}^3$ of $\mathbb{R}^3$ with a prismatic symmetry group of order $4n$. These examples give a negative answer to the uniqueness problem by Nitsche and Wente of whether any annular solution to the partitioning problem in the ball should be rotational.