• Journal of the Korean Mathematical Society
• /
• v.55 no.6
• /
• pp.1459-1468
• /
• 2018

We show that an umbilic-free minimal surface in ${\mathbb{R}}^3$ belongs to the associate family of the catenoid if and only if the geodesic curvatures of its lines of curvature have a constant ratio. As a corollary, the helicoid is shown to be the unique umbilic-free minimal surface whose lines of curvature have the same geodesic curvature. A similar characterization of the deformation family of minimal surfaces with planar lines of curvature is also given.