# Second variation formula for minimal surfaces

I am reading the Colding and Miniczzi book "A course in Minimal Surfaces". In chapter 1, section 8 there is a derivation of the second variation formula, and the stability operator $L$, but just for the case of normal variations.

A normal vector fields $J$ on a minimal surface $\Sigma$ is said to be a Jacobi field if $LJ = 0$.

Then in the book they consider the case when $\Sigma \subset \mathbb{R}^3$ is the graph of a function satisfying the minimal surface equation. Then they consider the variation $F: \Sigma \times \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}^3$ defined as: $$F \colon (x_1, x_2, x_3, t) \mapsto (x_1, x_2, x_3 + t).$$ The variation field on the surface is $(0, 0, 1)$ and clearly $$t \mapsto Vol\big(F(\Sigma, t) \big)$$ is constant.

Then in the book they conclude that the normal component of the variation field of this variation is a Jacobi Field.

I don't understand why this should be true. I mean, how can we assert that the normal component of the variation $F$ does not change the volume? In principle this could be false.

Thus, the variation generated by the normal component of $(0,0,1)$ will have image coinciding with that of $F$, which clearly has constant volume.
• Yes thanks! I actually just realized that it was a silly question. Because the first variation formula is: $$\frac{d}{dt} Vol(F(\Sigma, t)) = - \int_\Sigma (F_t, H)$$ where F is a variation (not necessarily normal) with compact support. And since the mean curvature vector $H$ is normal, it's clear that the tangent component of the variation does not contribute. Thank you very much!! – Onil90 Jan 19 '17 at 10:38
• There is one technical detail @Onil90, the variation $F$ (the translation) is not of compact support, so for your first variation formula, there would be a boundary term. – user99914 Jan 19 '17 at 19:31
• In fact you can just calculate $L f$, where $f = \vec n \cdot (0,0,1)$ is the orthogonal part of $(0,0,1)$ and check that to be zero. Of course it is not so geometric. @Onil90 – user99914 Jan 19 '17 at 20:32