Henry Christian Wente (August 18, 1936 – January 20, 2020)[1] was an American mathematician, known for his 1986 discovery of the Wente torus, an immersed constant-mean-curvature surface whose existence disproved a conjecture of Heinz Hopf.[2][3]

Wente obtained both his bachelor's degree and his Ph.D. from Harvard University.[1] He completed his doctorate in 1966, under the supervision of Garrett Birkhoff.[4] He was a distinguished professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of Toledo, which he joined in 1971.[1] In 1986 he was an Invited Speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) in Berkeley, California.[5] In 2012 he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.[6]

Selected publications

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Articles

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  • —— (1971). "An existence theorem for surfaces of constant mean curvature". Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. 77 (2): 200–203. doi:10.1090/S0002-9904-1971-12679-4. MR 0268743.
  • —— (1971). "A general existence theorem for surfaces of constant mean curvature". Mathematische Zeitschrift. 120 (3): 277–288. doi:10.1007/BF01117500.
  • Hildebrandt, S.; —— (1973). "Variational problems with obstacles and a volume constraint". Mathematische Zeitschrift. 135: 55–68. doi:10.1007/BF01214305.
  • —— (1974). "The Dirichlet problem with a volume constraint". Manuscripta Mathematica. 11 (2): 141–157. doi:10.1007/BF01184954.
  • —— (1975). "The differential equation  x=2H(xu   xv) with vanishing boundary values". Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society. 50 (1): 131–137. doi:10.2307/2040528. MR 0374673.
  • Steffen, Klaus; —— (1978). "The non-existence of branch points in solutions to certain classes of plateau type variational problems". Mathematische Zeitschrift. 163 (3): 211–238. doi:10.1007/BF01174896.
  • —— (1980). "Large solutions to the volume constrained plateau problem". Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis. 75 (1): 59–77. Bibcode:1980ArRMA..75...59W. doi:10.1007/BF00284621.
  • —— (1982). "The symmetry of rotating fluid bodies". Manuscripta Mathematica. 39 (2–3): 287–296. doi:10.1007/BF01165793.
  • —— (1985). "A counterexample in 3-space to a conjecture of H. Hopf". Arbeitstagung Bonn 1984. Lecture Notes in Mathematics. Vol. 1111. pp. 421–429. doi:10.1007/BFb0084601. ISBN 978-3-540-15195-1.
  • —— (1987). "Immersed Tori of Constant Mean Curvature in  ". Variational Methods for Free Surface Interfaces. pp. 13–26. doi:10.1007/978-1-4612-4656-5_2. ISBN 978-1-4612-9101-5.
  • —— (1987). "Twisted Tori of Constant Mean Curvature in  ". Seminar on New Results in Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations. pp. 1–36. doi:10.1007/978-3-322-85049-2_1. ISBN 978-3-322-85051-5.
  • Sterling, I.; —— (1993). "Existence and Classification of Constant Mean Curvature Multibubbletons of Finite and Infinite Type". Indiana University Mathematics Journal. 42 (4): 1239–1266. doi:10.1512/iumj.1993.42.42057. JSTOR 24897145.
  • —— (1995). "The capillary problem for an infinite trough". Calculus of Variations and Partial Differential Equations. 3 (2): 155–192. doi:10.1007/BF01205004.
  • —— (1999). "A surprising bubble catastrophe". Pacific Journal of Mathematics. 189 (2): 339–375. doi:10.2140/pjm.1999.189.339.
  • —— (2002). "Constant mean curvature surfaces of annular type". Calculus of Variations and Partial Differential Equations. 14 (2): 193–211. doi:10.1007/s005260100097.
  • —— (2008). "The Floating Ball Paradox". Journal of Mathematical Fluid Mechanics. 10 (4): 569–582. Bibcode:2008JMFM...10..569W. doi:10.1007/s00021-007-0251-0.
  • —— (2011). "Exotic Capillary Tubes". Journal of Mathematical Fluid Mechanics. 13 (3): 355–370. Bibcode:2011JMFM...13..355W. doi:10.1007/s00021-010-0027-9.

Books

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Zaborney, Mark (January 24, 2020), "Henry C. Wente (1936-2020): UT professor known in mathematics for soap bubble curvature research", Toledo Blade
  2. ^ Wente, Henry C. (1986), "Counterexample to a conjecture of H. Hopf.", Pacific Journal of Mathematics, 121: 193–243, doi:10.2140/pjm.1986.121.193
  3. ^ The Wente torus, University of Toledo Mathematics Department, retrieved 2013-09-01.
  4. ^ Henry C. Wente at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  5. ^ "Wente, H. C." ICM Plenary and Invited Speakers.
  6. ^ List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society, retrieved 2013-09-01.