Maximal metrics for the first Steklov eigenvalue on surfaces

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In recent years, eigenvalue optimization problems have received a lot of attention, in particular, due to their connection with the theory of minimal surfaces. In the present paper we prove that on any orientable surface there exists a smooth metric maximizing the first normalized Steklov eigenvalue. For surfaces of genus zero, this has been earlier proved by A. Fraser and R. Schoen. Our approach builds upon their ideas and further developments due to R. Petrides. As a corollary, we show that there exist free boundary branched minimal immersions of an arbitrary compact orientable surface with boundary into a Euclidean ball of some dimension.