Conformal geometry and Willomore surfaces in Lorentzian Space forms

In this paper we study the conformal geometry of oriented space-like surfaces in 3-dimensional Lorentzian space forms. Our approach is based on the use of the conformal Gauss map, which is a 2-parameter family of conformally invariant oriented 2-spheres. We use the conformal Gauss map to discuss the Willmore functional, which is the simplest conformally invariant integral which can be assigned to the surface. 4 refs