Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 15, 2026

Neovius surface

In differential geometry, the Neovius surface is a triply periodic minimal surface originally discovered by Finnish mathematician Edvard Rudolf Neovius.

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Neovius' minimal surface in a unit cell. source ↗

In differential geometry, the Neovius surface is a triply periodic minimal surface originally discovered by Finnish mathematician Edvard Rudolf Neovius (the uncle of Rolf Nevanlinna).12

The surface has genus 9, dividing space into two infinite non-equivalent labyrinths. Like many other triply periodic minimal surfaces it has been studied in relation to the microstructure of block copolymers, surfactant-water mixtures,3 and crystallography of soft materials.4

It can be approximated with the level set surface5

3 ( cos x + cos y + cos z ) + 4 cos x cos y cos z = 0 {\displaystyle 3(\cos x+\cos y+\cos z)+4\cos x\cos y\cos z=0}

In Schoen's categorisation it is called the C(P) surface, since it is the "complement" of the Schwarz P surface. It can be extended with further handles, converging towards the expanded regular octahedron (in Schoen's categorisation)67

References

References

  1. E. R. Neovius, "Bestimmung zweier spezieller periodischer Minimalflächen" (in German), Akad. Abhandlungen, Helsingfors, 1883. http://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?PPN591417707
  2. Eric A. Lord, and Alan L. Mackay, Periodic minimal surfaces of cubic symmetry, Current science, vol. 85, no. 3, 10 August 2003 https://www.schoengeometry.com/e80-tpms-media/Lord_Mackay_gallery_of_surfaces.pdf Access date: 26 April 2026
  3. S. T. Hyde, Interfacial architecture in surfactant-water mixtures: Beyond spheres, cylinders and planes. Pure and Applied Chemistry, vol. 64, no. 11, pp. 1617–1622, 1992 https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1351/pac199264111617/html?srsltid=AfmBOorVhtmz1YpZhuErYY4JgV_r9ZnttrnCTJdzdqBktdKCGIQMlocl Access date: 26 April 2026
  4. AL Mackay, Flexicrystallography: curved surfaces in chemical structures, Current Science, 69:2 25 July 1995 JSTOR 24097238
  5. Meinhard Wohlgemuth, Nataliya Yufa, James Hoffman, and Edwin L. Thomas. Triply Periodic Bicontinuous Cubic Microdomain Morphologies by Symmetries. Macromolecules, 2001, 34 (17), pp 6083–6089 JSTOR 54577
  6. Alan H. Schoen, Triply Periodic Minimal Surfaces (TPMS), http://schoengeometry.com/e-tpms.html
  7. Ken Brakke, C-P Family of Triply Periodic Minimal Surfaces, http://www.susqu.edu/brakke/evolver/examples/periodic/cpfamily.html Archived 2015-07-16 at the Wayback Machine