Existence of free boundary minimal disks in convex regions

Abstract

We show that any three-ball with mean convex boundary contains an embedded free boundary minimal disk. Moreover, when the three-ball is a strictly convex domain with nonnegative Ricci curvature (for instance, a compact convex domain in Euclidean three-space), we prove the existence of at least three embedded free boundary minimal disks. Our approach is based on a multiplicity-one theorem for the free boundary Simon-Smith min-max theory.