Constant mean curvature surfaces in the sub-Lorentzian Heisenberg group

Abstract

We study constant horizontal mean curvature surfaces in the sub-Lorentzian Heisenberg group. We derive the first-variation formula for horizontal area under volume-preserving radial variations and show that smooth isoperimetric candidates have constant horizontal mean curvature away from the characteristic set. We then give a complete classification of smooth boost-symmetric constant mean curvature surfaces: their characteristic sets, causal behaviour, and ambient sub-Lorentzian isometry classes. From this classification, we single out a family of smooth, acausal, boost-symmetric surfaces with nonzero constant mean curvature. Written as a two-sheeted graph over the exterior of a future hyperbola, this family is a natural sub-Lorentzian analogue of the Pansu bubbles and leads us to conjecture that it gives the isoperimetric maximisers in the sub-Lorentzian Heisenberg group.