On the Gauss Map of Anisotropic Minimal Surfaces and applications to the Morse Index estimates

In the paper, we study the Gauss map of a completely immersed anisotropic minimal surface with respect to convex parametric integrand in ${\mathbb{R}}^3$. By a local analysis, we prove the discreteness of the critical set of the Gauss map of an anisotropic minimal surface. In particular, we may consider the Gauss map as a branched covering map from an anisotropic minimal surface to the unit sphere. As a consequence, we may obtain an upper and a lower estimate for the Morse index of an anisotropic minimal surface by applying some conformal geometric technics to the Gauss map.