Abstract
We compute the first variation of the functional that assigns each unit vector field the volume of its image in the unit tangent bundle. It is shown that critical points are exactly those vector fields that determine a minimal immersion. We also find a necessary and sufficient condition that a vector field, defined in an open manifold, must fulfill to be minimal, and obtain a simpler equivalent condition when the vector field is Killing. The condition is fulfilled, in particular, by the characteristic vector field of a Sasakian manifold and by Hopf vector fields on spheres.
